Ultrafast lasers based on Cr2+-doped ZnS and ZnSe

Abstract: The advent of femtosecond Ti:Sapphire lasers has enabled transformative advances in high field nonlinear optics and intense laser-matter interaction physics. Theories predict that many high field phenomena such as high harmonic generation favor middle IR laser wavelengths in terms of extending the high energy cutoff. The invention of middle IR Cr2+-doped ZnS and ZnSe lasers in the 1996s by the research team of William Krupke at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has coincided with an explosive progress of ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser technology. Therefore, these vibronic laser materials with broad tunability from 1.8 to 3.3 μm were referred to as the “Ti:Sapphires of the mid-IR.” We will give an overview of the most recent achievements on power and energy scaling of ultrafast lasers based on ceramic Cr:ZnS(Se) and discuss the approaches to TW-class peak p owers. We will also describe interesting and yet to be explored opportunities provided by a combination of superb ultrafast laser capabilities Cr:ZnS(Se) with random quasi-phase-matching process in engineered ceramics.