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Ti-sapphire laser


Ti:sapphire lasers (also known as Ti:Al2O3 lasers, titanium-sapphire lasers, or Ti:sapphs) are tunable lasers which emit red and near-infrared light in the range from 650 to 1100 nanometers. These lasers are mainly used in scientific research because of their tunability and their ability to generate ultrashort pulses. Lasers based on Ti:sapphire were first constructed in 1982.

Titanium-sapphire refers to the lasing medium, a crystal of sapphire (Al2O3) that is doped with titanium ions. A Ti:sapphire laser is usually pumped with another laser with a wavelength of 514 to 532 nm, for which argon-ion lasers (514.5 nm) and frequency-doubled Nd:YAG, Nd:YLF, and Nd:YVO lasers (527-532 nm) are used. Ti:sapphire lasers operate most efficiently at wavelengths near 800 nm.

Mode-locked oscillators generate ultrashort pulses with a typical duration between a few picoseconds and 10 femtoseconds, in special cases even around 5 femtoseconds. The pulse repetition frequency is in most cases around 70 to 90 MHz. Ti:sapphire oscillators are normally pumped with a continuous-wave laser beam from an argon or frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 laser. Typically, such an oscillator has an average output power of 0.4 to 2.5 watts.


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