Multifunctional solid state lasers based on ferroelectric crystals

From the appearance of the laser, 50 years ago, the use of ferroelectric crystals in optical devices has constituted a field of much interest and activity. Ferroelectric materials have been employed successfully in nonlinear passive optical systems such as frequency mixers, optical parametric oscillators, and modulators of light. In the last years it has been demonstrated that several ferroelectric materials can also operate as active optical systems generating laser action when the suitable optically active impurities are incorporated into the crystals. Here, it will be shown how some important features offered by ferroelectric materials (nonlinearity, presence of ferroelectric domains, phase transition, thermal hysteresis, ...) can be exploited in order to provide solid state lasers with a reliable multifunctional optical character. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.