Ce:LiCAF

Ce:LiCAF is perhaps the most extensively studied as a laser and amplifier material because of the absence of color center formation and solarization effects, therefore enabling high-power UV emission. Efficient UV generation through lasing techniques and/or amplification heavily relies on crystal quality and pumping configuration. The gain spectra of Ce:LiCAF is in the range 280–320 nm and is characteristic of the Ce³⁺ 5d¹–4f¹ interconfigurational transition. Ce³⁺-doped colquiriite LiCaA1F6 single crystals (LiCAF:Ce) are not only excellent u.v. fluorescers, but they also exhibit broadband tunable gain in u.v. under pulsed pumping at 266nm. UV solid-state laser materials that are continuously tunable over 4000cm⁻¹, such as and Ce:LiCAF, could service numerous scientific, engineering, and medical applications. This material may also be suited to remote-sensing applications, since molecules such as ozone and aromatic-based compounds have characteristic absorption bands in the UV. For example, the UV tunability provided by Ce:LiCAF could serve as the basis for a UV differential-absorption lidar system that would have the versatility of continuously variable wavelengths. The reliability, compactness, nontoxicity, and high efficiencies offered by solid-state lasers provide many advantages over other tunable coherent ultraviolet sources, such as frequency-doubled dye lasers. Applications in inhospitable environments may also be rendered more practical with an all-solid-state UV source.