Nanosecond-pulsed RT-operating at ~4 μm Fe:ZnSe laser pumped inside the cavity of a LD side-pumped Er:YLF laser.

Characteristics of an Fe:ZnSe laser with a new pump scheme were presented. An Fe:ZnSe crystal was placed inside the cavity of the Er:YLF laser pumped by a bar of laser diodes (LD) emitting at 975 nm. The high power 2.66 μm wave ~50 ns pulses were generated inside the cavity due to passive Q-switching of the Er:YLF laser by an Fe:ZnSe saturated absorber. These pulses pumped the Fe:ZnSe laser. As a result, the pulses with an energy of ~2 μJ at a wavelength around 4 μm and time duration of about 50 ns were generated. The laser operated in periodic-pulsed pump regime at room temperature with a repetition rate up to 200 Hz. The Q-switching pulse repetition rate during the pump pulse ran up to 2.5 kHz.