Multifunctional laser crystal

We present results of a laser crystal performing both as a broad-band heterodyne frequency converter for tunable CW lasers, and as a crystal which generates up to 8 visible cw laser waves simultaneously, including red, green and blue from a single-wavelength pump source. The crystal is a 3 mm long lithium niobate crystal doped with Nd/sup 3+/ laser-active ions.