Solid-state Lasers
| Laser gain medium and type | Operation wavelength(s) | Pump source | Applications and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby laser | 694.3 nm | Flashlamp | Holography, tattoo removal. The first type of visible light laser invented; May 1960. |
| Nd:YAG laser | 1.064 μm, (1.32 μm) | Flashlamp, laser diode | Material processing, rangefinding, laser target designation, surgery, research, pumping other lasers (combined with frequency doubling to produce a green 532 nm beam). One of the most common high power lasers. Usually pulsed (down to fractions of a nanosecond) |
| NdCrYAG laser | 1.064 μm, (1.32 μm) | solar radiation | Experimental production of nanopowders. |
| Er:YAG laser | 2.94 μm | Flashlamp, laser diode | Periodontal scaling, Dentistry |
| Neodymium YLF (Nd:YLF) solid-state laser | 1.047 and 1.053 μm | Flashlamp, laser diode | Mostly used for pulsed pumping of certain types of pulsed Ti:sapphire lasers, combined with frequency doubling. |
| Neodymium doped Yttrium orthovanadate (Nd:YVO4) laser | 1.064 μm | laser diode | Mostly used for continuous pumping of mode-locked Ti:sapphire or dye lasers, in combination with frequency doubling. Also used pulsed for marking and micromachining. A frequency doubled nd:YVO4 laser is also the normal way of making a green laser pointer. |
| Neodymium doped yttrium calcium oxoborate Nd:YCa4O(BO3)3 or simply Nd:YCOB | ~1.060 μm (~530 nm at second harmonic) | laser diode | Nd:YCOB is a so called "self-frequency doubling" or SFD laser material which is both capable of lasing and which has nonlinear characteristics suitable for second harmonic generation. Such materials have the potential to simplify the design of high brightness green lasers. |
| Neodymium glass (Nd:Glass) laser | ~1.062 μm (Silicate glasses), ~1.054 μm (Phosphate glasses) | Flashlamp, laser diode | Used in extremely high power (terawatt scale), high energy (megajoules) multiple beam systems for inertial confinement fusion. Nd:Glass lasers are usually frequency tripled to the third harmonic at 351 nm in laser fusion devices. |
| Titanium sapphire (Ti:sapphire) laser | 650-1100 nm | Other laser | Spectroscopy, LIDAR, research. This material is often used in highly-tunable mode-locked infrared lasers to produce ultrashort pulses and in amplifier lasers to produce ultrashort and ultra-intense pulses. |
| Thulium YAG (Tm:YAG) laser | 2.0 μm | Laser diode | LIDAR. |
| Ytterbium YAG (Yb:YAG) laser | 1.03 μm | Laser diode, flashlamp | Optical refrigeration, materials processing, ultrashort pulse research, multiphoton microscopy, LIDAR. |
| Ytterbium:2O3 (glass or ceramics) laser | 1.03 μm | Laser diode | ultrashort pulse research, |
| Ytterbium doped glass laser (rod, plate/chip, and fiber) | 1. μm | Laser diode. | Fiber version is capable of producing several-kilowatt continuous power, having ~70-80% optical-to-optical and ~25% electrical-to-optical efficiency. Material processing: cutting, welding, marking; nonlinear fiber optics: broadband fiber-nonlinearity based sources, pump for fiber Raman lasers; distributed Raman amplification pump for telecommunications. |
| Holmium YAG (Ho:YAG) laser | 2.1 μm | Laser diode | Tissue ablation, kidney stone removal, dentistry. |
| Chromium ZnSe (Cr:ZnSe) laser | 2.2 - 2.8 μm | Other laser (Tm fiber) | MWIR laser radar, countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles etc. |
| Cerium doped lithium strontium (or calcium) aluminum fluoride (Ce:LiSAF, Ce:LiCAF) | ~280 to 316 nm | Frequency quadrupled Nd:YAG laser pumped, excimer laser pumped, copper vapor laser pumped. | Remote atmospheric sensing, LIDAR, optics research. |
| Promethium 147 doped phosphate glass (147Pm+3:Glass) solid-state laser | 933 nm, 1098 nm | ?? | Laser material is radioactive. Once demonstrated in use at LLNL in 1987, room temperature 4 level lasing in 147Pm doped into a lead-indium-phosphate glass étalon. |
| Chromium doped chrysoberyl (alexandrite) laser | Typically tuned in the range of 700 to 820 nm | Flashlamp, laser diode, mercury arc (for CW mode operation) | Dermatological uses, LIDAR, laser machining. |
| Erbium doped and erbium-ytterbium codoped glass lasers | 1.53-1.56 μm | Laser diode | These are made in rod, plate/chip, and optical fiber form. Erbium doped fibers are commonly used as optical amplifiers for telecommunications. |
| Trivalent uranium doped calcium fluoride (U:CaF2) solid-state laser | 2.5 μm | Flashlamp | First 4-level solid state laser (November 1960) developed by Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson at IBM research labs, second laser invented overall (after Maiman's ruby laser), liquid helium cooled, unused today. |
| Divalent samarium doped calcium fluoride (Sm:CaF2) laser | 708.5 nm | Flashlamp | Also invented by Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson at IBM research labs, early 1961. Liquid helium cooled, unused today. |
| F-Center laser. | 2.3-3.3 μm | Ion laser | Spectroscopy |
Read more about this topic: List Of Laser Types