Development History of Laser Materials and Their Applications in China

Abstract

Since emergence of the first laser device — ruby laser, solid state lasers continue to occupy a prominent place among the different kinds of laser devices, which are widely used in industrial, medical, military and scientific fields. The laser materials are the research keystones for development of new solid state lasers. There are two kinds of solid state laser: light-pumped and electrically excited, the latter ones are semiconductor lasers. As the preparation of semiconductor laser materials — semiconductor thin films always ties with laser devices, hence, in this paper we discuss mainly the light-pumped and ion-activated solid state materials, in which the author had long been engaged.