LNA: A new CW Nd laser tunable around 1.05 and 1.08 µm

We have investigated the CW laser properties of the lanthamide hexa-aluminate La
0.9
Nd
0.1
MgAl
11
O
19
at room temperature. When a 1 cm long crystal is pumped by an Ar+ laser (514 nm) or a Kr+ laser (752 nm), CW emission is obtained with slope efficiencies of 10 and 26 percent, respectively. A four-plate Lyot filter in the cavity forces the LNA crystal to oscillate in either of the two major bands centered al 10 820 Å (tuning range 80 Å) and 10 545 Å (tuning range 35 Å).