Cr4+:YAG crystals Chromium Doped Yttrium AIuminum Garnet

Co2+:MgAl2O4 Cospinel is a relatively new material for passive Q-switching in lasers emitting from 1.2 to 1.6 μm, in particular, for eye-safe 1.54 μm Er:glass laser, but also works at 1.44 μm and 1.34 μm wavelengths. Spinel is a hard, stable crystal that polishes well. Cobalt substitutes readily for magnesium in the Spinel host without the need for additional charge compensation ions. High absorption cross section (3.5×10-19 cm2) permits Q-switching of Er:glass laser without intracavity focusing both with flash-lamp and diode-laser pumping. Negligible excited-state absorption results in high contrast of Q-switch, i.e. the ratio of initial (small signal) to saturated absorption is higher than 10.

Nd:YVO4 (Neodymium Doped Yttrium Orthovanadate) crystals is one of the most promising commercially available diode pumped solid state laser materials, especially, for low to middle power density. This is mainly for its higher absorption and emission features than Nd:YAG crystal. Pumped by laser diodes, Nd:YVO4 crystal has been incorporated with high NLO coefficient crystals ( LBO, BBO, or KTP) to frequency-shift the output from the near infrared to green, blue, or even UV. This incorporation to construct all solid state lasers is an ideal laser tool that can cover the most widespread applications of lasers, including machining, material processing, spectroscopy, wafer inspection, light displays, medical diagnostics, laser printing, and data storage, etc. It has been shown that Nd:YVO4 based diode pumped solid state lasers are rapidly occupying the markets traditionally dominated by water-cooled ion lasers and lamp-pumped lasers, especially when compact design and single-longitudinal-mode outputs are required.

CaF2 or Calcium Fluoride is a cubic crystal with an excellent transmission from 130 nm to 10 μm and has widespread applications as transparent windows in the ultraviolet and infrared spectra.

α-BBO (α-BaB2O4) is a negative uniaxial crystal which has large birefringence over a broad transparent range of 190nm to 3500nm. α-BBO is an excellent crystal especially in UV and high power applications. The physical, chemical, thermal, and optical properties of alpha-BBO crystal are similar to those of Beta-BBO. However, there is no second order nonlinear effect in alpha-BBO crystal due to the centrosymmetry in its crystal structure and thus it has no use for second order nonlinear optical processes. Instead, alpha-BBO is widely used for fabrication of polarizers, polarizing beam displacers, phase retarders, birefringent plates, and time delay compensators especially those for UV and high power lasers.

HGO grows Pr:YLF laser crystals using Czochralski technology. Pr3+:YLF has been found as promising laser material for producing visible lasers directly and UV lasers through intracavity second-harmonic generation. Very few laser materials have the necessary properties for the realization of lasing in the visible spectral range. Trivalent praseodymium (Pr3+) is known to be an interesting laser ion for use with solid-state lasers in the visible spectral range because of its energy levels scheme, providing several transitions in the red (640 nm, 3P0 to 3F2), orange (607 nm, 3P0 to 3H6), green (523 nm, 3P0 to 3H5), and dark red (720 nm, 3P0 3F3+3F4) spectral regions.

Pure YAG Yttrium Aluminum Garnet is a new substrate and window material that can be used for both UV and IR optics. It is particularly useful for high-temperature and high-energy applications. The mechanical and chemical stability of YAG is comparable to sapphire crystal, but YAG is unique with no birefringence which is extremely important for some optical applications.

HGO grows BBO Nonlinear crystals using flux technology. BBO crystal transparency ranges from 188 nm to 5,2 µm, which includes reasonable transparency from 3-5,2 µm for few tens µm thick crystals, while their phase-matchable range spans almost over the entire transparency range. Combined with other magnificent properties of BBO, it is favorable for numerous nonlinear parametric applications. It is worth to mention that BBO crystals have the highest nonlinearity in the UV range out of all common nonlinear crystals.

Potassium Titanyl Phosphate (KTiOPO4 or KTP) is widely used in both commercial and military lasers including laboratory and medical systems, range-finders, lidar, optical communication and industrial systems.