Color-center powder laser: the effect of pulverization on color-center characteristics

Abstract

Stimulated emission is obtained and characterized in a powder of LiF crystal with color centers. Absorption, luminescent, and kinetics properties of color centers are studied in powder samples of LiF. They are found to be rather different from those in a bulk material. The difference is explained by dislocations mechanically created during the pulverization of the material. The characteristics of stimulated emission in LiF powder samples were found very different from those in scattering Nd-doped luminophosphors. This difference can be ascribed to a much higher emission cross section and a much smaller lifetime of emitting centers in LiF.