Broadband tunable mid-IR Cr2+:CdSe lasers for medical applications

Currently, lasers are widely used for surgery, medical diagnostics and oncology research. Unfortunately, most of the used laser sources have a significant drawback - the lack of operating wavelength tuning possibility, which imposes significant limitations on the investigation of biological tissues spectral properties and searching for the optimal mode of their treatment. Comparison between different promising mid-IR sources was made. We report on development of mid-infrared (mid-IR) tunable lasers based on the Cr2+ :CdSe single-crystals. These lasers operate in CW mode with the maximum output power of up to 2 W and possible tuning range from 2.2 to 3.6 μm.