A laser system, comprised of: a laser cavity; a gain medium a pump, a saturable absorber (SA); a first mirror and a second mirror; wherein a ratio of an area of the beam area within the SA to an area of the laser beam within the gain medium is greater than 1, and wherein the beam generates a gain medium radius spot on the gain medium and a saturable absorber radius spot on the saturable absorber such that a ratio between a saturable absorber radius spot on the saturable absorber and the gain medium radius spot on the gain medium is within a range of 1.7-7 is disclosed. A method for using the laser system e.g., for producing a pulsed energy is further disclosed.

A solid state ring laser gyroscope comprises a laser block including a resonant ring cavity having an optical closed loop pathway; a plurality of mirror structures mounted on the block and including respective multilayer mirrors that reflect light beams around the closed loop pathway; and a pump laser assembly in optical communication with the closed loop pathway through one of the mirror structures. One or more of the multilayer mirrors includes a rare-earth doped gain layer operative to produce bidirectional optical amplification of counter-propagating light beams in the closed loop pathway. In some embodiments, the gain layer comprises a rare-earth dopant other than neodymium that is doped into a glassy host material comprising titania, tantalum oxide, alumina, zirconia, silicate glass, phosphate glass, tellurite glass, fluorosilicate glass, or non-oxide glass. Alternatively, the gain layer can comprise a neodymium dopant that is doped into a glassy host material other than silica.

A structure can include a III-N layer with a first lattice constant, a first rare earth pnictide layer with a second lattice constant epitaxially grown over the III-N layer, a second rare earth pnictide layer with a third lattice constant epitaxially grown over the first rare earth pnictide layer, and a semiconductor layer with a fourth lattice constant epitaxially grown over the second rare earth pnictide layer. A first difference between the first lattice constant and the second lattice constant and a second difference between the third lattice constant and the fourth lattice constant are less than one percent.

A solid state ring laser gyroscope comprises a laser block including a resonant ring cavity having an optical closed loop pathway; a plurality of mirror structures mounted on the block and including respective multilayer mirrors that reflect light beams around the closed loop pathway; and a pump laser assembly in optical communication with the closed loop pathway through one of the mirror structures. One or more of the multilayer mirrors includes a rare-earth doped gain layer operative to produce bidirectional optical amplification of counter-propagating light beams in the closed loop pathway. In some embodiments, the gain layer comprises a rare-earth dopant other than neodymium that is doped into a glassy host material comprising titania, tantalum oxide, alumina, zirconia, silicate glass, phosphate glass, tellurite glass, fluorosilicate glass, or non-oxide glass. Alternatively, the gain layer can comprise a neodymium dopant that is doped into a glassy host material other than silica.

A laser system, comprised of: a laser cavity; a gain medium a pump, a saturable absorber (SA); a first mirror and a second mirror; wherein a ratio of an area of the laser beam within the gain medium to an area of the beam area within the SA is greater than 1, and wherein the beam generates a gain medium radius spot on the gain medium and a saturable absorber radius spot on the saturable absorber such that a ratio between the gain medium radius spot on the gain medium and a saturable absorber radius spot on the saturable absorber is within a range of 1.7-7 is disclosed. A method for using the laser system e.g., for producing a pulsed energy is further disclosed.

The invention relates to rare-earth-doped ternary sulfides. The rare-earth-doped ternary sulfides may be used as an active material for mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared lasers and amplifiers. Methods for producing laser materials including rare-earth-doped ternary sulfides, as well as lasers and amplifiers incorporating the laser materials, are also provided.

Systems and methods described herein may include a first semiconductor layer with a first lattice constant, a rare earth pnictide buffer epitaxially grown over the first semiconductor, wherein a first region of the rare earth pnictide buffer adjacent to the first semiconductor has a net strain that is less than 1%, a second semiconductor layer epitaxially grown over the rare earth pnictide buffer, wherein a second region of the rare earth pnictide buffer adjacent to the second semiconductor has a net strain that is a desired strain, and wherein the rare earth pnictide buffer may comprise one or more rare earth elements and one or more Group V elements. In some examples, the desired strain is approximately zero.

A structure can include a III-N layer with a first lattice constant, a first rare earth pnictide layer with a second lattice constant epitaxially grown over the III-N layer, a second rare earth pnictide layer with a third lattice constant epitaxially grown over the first rare earth pnictide layer, and a semiconductor layer with a fourth lattice constant epitaxially grown over the second rare earth pnictide layer. A first difference between the first lattice constant and the second lattice constant and a second difference between the third lattice constant and the fourth lattice constant are less than one percent.

Laser signal intensity is resonantly enhanced within a laser cavity to be greater than a pump intensity. This enables the suppression of excited-state absorption and is applicable to terbium-doped fiber lasers, lambda-type materials, or other materials used in lasers. In other embodiments, ESA is suppressed by de-populating the higher excited state using a resonant cavity.

Methods and apparatus for producing high power lasers with reduced speckle are provided. Fiber and solid-state lasers comprising terbium-doped lasing material are provided. Embodiments are described for increasing signal reflection bandwidth, reducing coupling and coherency of spatial modes, and equalizing gain of terbium-doped lasers for use in laser display systems. Spectral selectors are described for generating separate wavelengths within a range of interest for use in 3D laser display systems.