Lasing and luminescence characteristics of Fe:CdTe single crystal at room temperature

A technology for obtaining high-quality single-crystal active elements for a Fe:CdTe laser was described, which includes growing a single crystal from a melt using a modified vertical gradient freeze method followed by high -temperature treatment to remove free charge carriers. The room-temperature lasing and luminescence charac-teristics of a Fe:CdTe single crystal with a Fe2+ ions concentration of 6.1 x 1018 cm-3 were studied. The upper laser level lifetime, the output energy and a slope efficiency with respect to absorbed energy of the Fe:CdTe laser excited by the Fe:ZnSe laser were 340 ns, 13.5 mJ and 32%, respectively. The lasing spectrum of the Fe:CdTe laser with a nonselective cavity was located within the range 5.63-6.02 mu m. It was noted the possibility to control the lasing spectrum by changing the pump laser spectrum (shifting the Fe:ZnSe laser spectrum to the short-or long-wavelength region by changing the quality factor of the cavity). Ways are discussed for further increasing the output energy of a Fe:CdTe laser at room temperature of the active element, in particular, by using a non -chain electric-discharge DF laser for pumping.