Stable room-temperature tunable color center lasers and passive Q-switchers

Abstract The latest results on the development of stable room-temperature-operative tunable color center lasers and passive Q-switchers using color centers in crystals are presented. Emphasis is placed on the physics and operation conditions of highly thermally stable and photo-stable LiF and NaF color center lasers which have several unique characteristics. Attention is also paid to a high efficiency in the giant pulse generation by LiF-based passive Q-switchers. Applications of the room-temperature color center lasers to the laser spectroscopy, ultra-short pulse generation and integrated optics are also described.

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