Demonstration and power scaling of an Fe:CdMnTe laser at 5.2 microns

A sample of Fe:CdMnTe was grown from melt using the Bridgman technique and was polished and coated for use as a laser crystal. Optical spectroscopy techniques were used to determine the absorption and emission cross-sections of the sample at 80 K. A cryogenic free-running mid-IR laser was constructed in the X-cavity configuration. The laser output was centered at 5223 nm with a spectral width of 1 nm with a maximum average power of 810 mW. The laser exhibited a slope efficiency of 16.4% with respect to total pump power with a pulse repetition frequency of 400 Hz and a pulse duration of 220 μs.