The UAB Research Foundation (The University of Alabama at Birmingham)

Andrew Gallian

Sergey B Mirov

Vladimir V Fedorov

Alan Martinez

A Q-switched laser includes a laser cavity including a cavity mirror and an output coupler mirror. The Q-switched laser also includes a doped laser gain material disposed in the laser cavity and a Q-switch including a saturable absorber comprising Fe:ZnSe or Fe:ZnS.

Saturable absorbers for Q-switching of middle infrared laser cavities

This disclosure demonstrates successfully using single, polycrystalline, hot pressed ceramic, and thin film Fe doped binary chalcogenides (such as ZnSe and ZnS) as saturable absorbing passive Q-switches. The method of producing polycrystalline ZnSe(S) yields fairly uniform distribution of dopant, large coefficients of absorption (5-50 cm) and low passive losses while being highly cost effective and easy to reproduce. Using these Fe:ZnSe crystals, stable Q-switched output was achieved with a low threshold and the best cavity configuration yielded 13 mJ/pulse single mode Q-switched output and 85 mJ in a multipulse regime.

Growing community of inventors

McLean, VA, United States of America

Andrew Gallian