Abstract Cr: Colquiriite laser materials (Cr:LiCAF, Cr:LiSAF, Cr:LiSGaF) own broad absorption bands in the visible region that allow direct-diode pumping by well-developed low-cost red diodes. Moreover, they possess broad emission bands in the near infrared that enable widely tunable laser operation (720–1110 nm), and generation of sub-10-fs light pulses via mode-locking. Furthermore, Cr: Colquiriite crystals can be grown with a very low loss level of 0.2%/cm, which enables the construction of high-Q-cavities, resulting in lasing thresholds below 1 mW, and slope efficiencies above 50%. High-Q-cavities constructed with Cr: Colquiriites could store large amount of intracavity laser powers which is off great interest: (i) for increasing the efficiency of intracavity nonlinear processes such as intracavity frequency-doubling, and (ii) for minimizing laser noise such as timing jitter noise in femtosecond operation. However, thermally and mechanically Cr: Colquiriites have glass like properties. Hence, average power scaling has been challenging in the cw and femtosecond Cr: Colquiriite lasers, as well as in their amplifiers. In this paper, we will review research efforts over the last decades, in developing robust, low-cost, highly-efficient, and tunable cw and femtosecond laser sources based on diode-pumped Cr:Colquiriite gain media. Challenges for future progress will also be discussed.

中文翻译：

---

Cr:Colquiriite 激光器：现状和进一步发展面临的挑战

摘要 Cr: Colquiriite 激光材料 (Cr:LiCAF, Cr:LiSAF, Cr:LiSGaF) 在可见光区具有宽吸收带，允许通过成熟的低成本红色二极管进行直接二极管泵浦。此外，它们在近红外具有宽发射带，可实现广泛可调的激光操作（720-1110 nm），并通过锁模产生亚 10-fs 光脉冲。此外，Cr: Colquiriite 晶体可以以 0.2%/cm 的极低损耗水平生长，从而能够构建高 Q 腔，从而使激光阈值低于 1 mW，斜率效率高于 50%。用 Cr: Colquiriites 构建的高 Q 腔可以存储大量的腔内激光功率，这引起了人们的极大兴趣：(i) 用于提高腔内非线性过程的效率，例如腔内倍频，(ii) 用于最大限度地减少激光噪声，例如飞秒操作中的定时抖动噪声。然而，在热和机械方面，Cr: Colquiriites 具有类似玻璃的特性。因此，在 cw 和飞秒 Cr: Colquiriite 激光器及其放大器中，平均功率缩放一直具有挑战性。在本文中，我们将回顾过去几十年在开发基于二极管泵浦 Cr:Colquiriite 增益介质的稳健、低成本、高效且可调谐的连续和飞秒激光源方面的研究工作。还将讨论未来进展的挑战。在本文中，我们将回顾过去几十年在开发基于二极管泵浦 Cr:Colquiriite 增益介质的稳健、低成本、高效且可调谐的连续和飞秒激光源方面的研究工作。还将讨论未来进展的挑战。在本文中，我们将回顾过去几十年在开发基于二极管泵浦 Cr:Colquiriite 增益介质的稳健、低成本、高效且可调谐的连续和飞秒激光源方面的研究工作。还将讨论未来进展的挑战。