Ceramic laser materials: Past and present

Recently, 100 KW output power from YAG ceramic laser system has been demonstrated. It is a remarkable achievement considering that only a few milli-watt power was observed from the ceramic laser materials when first reported in the 1960s. This great improvement is mainly due to the success in high purity powder synthesis, development in new sintering technology and novel ideas in optics and device design. Additional developments have included highly doped microchip lasers, ultrashort pulse lasers, novel materials such as sesquioxides, fluoride ceramic lasers, selenide ceramic lasers in the 2–3 μm region, composite ceramic lasers for better thermal management, and single crystal lasers derived from polycrystalline ceramics. In this paper, we highlight some of these notable milestones and achievements and forecast the future in polycrystalline ceramic laser materials.

► Notable achievements in solid state lasing using ceramic materials are discussed.
► Lasing performance from various ceramic based lasers are presented.
► R & D efforts for high power lasers towards 100 KW and beyond are also discussed.