Room-temperature Fe2+: ZnS single crystal laser pumped by an electric-discharge HF laser

A room-temperature laser based on a single crystal has been studied. The crystal was pumped by a nonchain electric-discharge HF laser with a light pulse FWHM of . The pump spot diameter on the crystal surface varied from 3.9 to . The slope efficiency at these values of was 37% – 39 %, respectively. The maximum laser energy was (at ) with the total efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump energy of . A further increase in the laser energy was not achieved because the crystal was destroyed at an incident pump energy and power of and , respectively. The damaged region has a form of a long narrow channel shifted from the entrance surface inside the active element.