Infrared (2-12 μm) solid-state laser sources:: a review

The infrared domain is very attractive for many applications owing to two unique features: (i) it contains several atmospheric transparency windows, (ii) it corresponds to the 'molecular fingerprint' region of the electromagnetic spectrum where various molecules have strong rovibrational absorption lines. In many cases, these applications (e.g. laser surgery, trace gas monitoring, remote sensing, nonlinear spectroscopy, countermeasures,...) require coherent light radiation as the one emitted by a laser source. In this context, the choice of the proper technology is a key issue. Depending on the selected application, it could be required the source to deliver tunable emission, narrow linewidth, nearly diffraction limited beam, pulsed or continuous-wave (CW) radiation, etc. This article briefly reviews the main technologies, restricted to CW and nanosecond pulsed sources emitting in the 2-12 mu m range. The technologies considered include rare-earth and transition-metal doped bulk and fiber lasers, semiconductor lasers, and optical parametric sources. Pros and cons of these technologies are then briefly discussed in the context of several selected applications.