Frontiers in laser science—cryogenically cooled lasers: editorial

Abstract

In this Special Issue on Cryogenically Cooled Lasers, we capture a snapshot of the state-of-the-art laser systems that capitalise on the benefits of operating the gain material at cryogenic temperatures. The principle of operating a solid-state laser with the active medium held at extremely low temperatures is not new, as the second laser ever reported was based upon this technique [1]. However, it appears that the complexity of cryogenic, coupled with, laser engineering, has dampened significant uptake of the technology. Reasons to overcome the challenges were realised at the dawn of the “modern era” of cryogenically cooled lasers, as coined by D.C. Brown [2]. This modern era was heralded, incongruently, by Lacovara et al. [3], with the authors diode-pumping an ytterbium-doped Yttrium Aluminium Garnet (Yb:YAG) laser to demonstrate its potential for room-temperature operation. At the same time, they proved Yb:YAG is an exemplar active medium for power-scaling, epitomised soon after in the form of a thin disk [4]. In the process, also showing the spectroscopic and laser-performance advantages derived from cooling the crystal to cryogenic temperatures. Since that time, Yb:YAG has been the mainstay in power-scaling diode-pumped cryogenically cooled lasers [2, 5].

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Jacob Mackenzie: orcid.org/0000-0002-3355-6051

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics