The present application is directed to a homogeneous laser light source and includes at least one modeless seed source configured to output at least one modeless seed signal, at least one amplifier in communication with and configured to receive the modeless seed signal from the seed source and output at least one modeless amplifier signal, and at least one nonlinear optical generator configured to receive the amplifier signal and generate at least one modeless harmonic output signal in response to the modeless amplifier signal, wherein the wavelength of the harmonic output signal is different than a wavelength of the modeless amplifier signal.

A broadband emission material according to the present invention includes: a fluoride glass containing 20 to 45 mol % of AlF.sub.3, 25 to 63 mol % of alkaline-earth fluorides in total and 3 to 25 mol % of at least one fluoride of element selected from the group consisting of Y, La, Gd and Lu; and ytterbium ions incorporated in the fluoride glass as divalent rare-earth ions so as to serve as a luminescent center, wherein the fluoride glass includes 1 to 15 mol % of at least one halide of element selected from the group consisting of Al, Ba, Sr, Ca and Mg and element selected from the group consisting of Cl, Br and I; and wherein the alkaline-earth fluorides includes 0 to 15 mol % of MgF.sub.2, 7 to 25 mol % of CaF.sub.2, 0 to 22 mol % of SrF.sub.2 and 0 to 5 mol % of BaF.sub.2.

An apparatus for generating and amplifying laser beams at approximately 1 micrometer wavelength is disclosed. The apparatus includes an ytterbium-doped gain-crystal pumped by an ytterbium fiber-laser. The fiber-laser enables a pump wavelength to be selected that minimizes heating of the gain-crystal. The apparatus can be configured for generating and amplifying ultra-fast pulses, utilizing the gain-bandwidth of ytterbium-doped gain-crystals.