Solid-State Laser Group
Prof. Dr. Günter Huber
In the solid-state laser group of the Institute of Laser-Physics, new laser concepts are explored and new materials for laser applications are examined. In several research projects funded by governmental organizations and foundations as well as in close collaboration with industrial partners, new coherent light-sources for specific applications are developed and fundamental concepts for future photonic technologies are investigated. Our main research activities are:
The crystal growth of oxides with high melting points is an area of expertise of our research group. Especially the growth of rare-earth doped sesquioxides, which exhibit excellent material and laser properties, has been very successful. For medical applications, holmium- and thulium-doped systems are investigated. Suitable lasers for the detection of greenhouse gases are tailored by mixing different erbium-doped materials.
The development of visible lasers is promising for display applications such as laser projection systems. For these applications, particularly praseodymium-doped materials featuring several laser transitions in the visible spectral range are investigated at the Institute of Laser-Physics. Furthermore, the generation of ultra violet radiation by frequency doubling of these visible lasers serves a wide range of applications in analytics, biology and micro structuring.
Another research focus is the development of ytterbium-doped thin-disk lasers, which offer an excellent beam quality and thus are often employed for materials processing. In order to increase the laser efficiency and output power, new host materials are examined and fundamental processes, such as nonlinear losses in highly-doped ytterbium lasers, are investigated. Due to their broad emission bands, we use Yb-doped materials also for the generation of short pulses.
The group is also involved in the field of integrated optics and the development of compact laser cavities. First waveguide lasers have recently been demonstrated either by depositing thin films using pulsed laser deposition or by structuring of bulk crystals with ultra-short laser pulses. The realization of more complex integrated-optical devices and the combination of both fabrication techniques is currently in progress.