Influence of chromium and niobium Co-doping on laser damage threshold of Raman active crystals

Solid state laser systems are widely used nowadays for various scientific and technological applications. The stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a perspective way to convert the radiation of well developed lasers to a certain spectral region optimal for a specific application. Recently a number of new nonlinear tungstate and molybdate crystals were proposed for Raman lasers [1]. They allowed developing compact and efficient solid state laser systems operating in new spectral regions [2, 3]. Among them barium tungstate and calcium molybdate were found to be perspective Raman crystals. They have good thermal and physical properties, high moisture resistance. To reach SRS threshold one needs to arrange high pump power density in the nonlinear medium. The aim of this research was to investigate the influence of impurity dopants in sheelite crystals on their laser damage threshold.