In June 1984 a conference on visible and IR tunable solid-state lasers was held in La Jolla, California. The proceedings were published as the first volume of this series, Tunable Solid State Lasers *. The emphasis of this meeting focused on discerning unified themes in the generic areas of: - Laser host/dopant identification and growth procedures, - Theoretical analysis to elucidate fundamental tunable laser principles, - Experimental investigations on laser spectroscopy to which theoretical analyses and models can be anchored, and - Auxiliary technology developments in efficient laser pumping sources (diodes, ftashlamps). Subsequent to the La Jolla conference, two topical meetings were held, co-sponsored by the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Optical Society of America (OSA). The contents of Tunable Solid-State Lasers II comprise the pro­ ceedings of the second of these two, held at Rippling River Resort, Zigzag, Oregon, June 4-6, 1986. In addition to the four areas of attention in the La Jolla meeting, pa­ pers on color-center and new rare-earth lasers, and on nonlinear frequency shifting were also given. In a fashion similar to the previous meetings, the informal atmosphere of the conference and meeting site was conducive to constructive interaction among the attendees. A total of 54 papers were scheduled for presentation, 20 of which were invited and 34 contributed.

Inhalt

I Spectroscopy.- Two-Photon Spectroscopy Using Infrared Photons.- Laser Spectroscopy Measurements on Tunable Solid State Laser Materials.- Spectral Holeburning in Titanium-Doped Sapphire and YAG.- II Chromium Spectroscopy.- Chromium Activated Crystals as Tunable Laser Media - What Makes Them Special?.- Radiative and Nonradiative Energy Transfer Between Cr3+ and Nd3+ in GSGG.- Excited-State Absorption and Photoconductivity of GSGG:Cr and GSAG:Cr..- The Fluorescence Behaviour of Chromium-Doped Oxide Glasses.- III Crystal Growth.- Chromium-Doped Garnet Hosts: Crystal Chemistry Development and Properties.- Crystal Growth of ScBO3:Cr3+ - A New Near-IR Tunable Laser Crystal.- Growth of Laser-Quality Ti:Al2O3 Crystals by a Seeded Gradient Freeze Technique.- Effects of Growth Conditions and Post-Growth Thermal Treatment on the Quality of Titanium-Doped Sapphire.- Growth of Cerium-Doped Rare Earth Silicates for Tunable Lasers.- IV Chromium Tunable Lasers.- The Chromium-Doped Rare-Earth Gallium Garnet Crystals as the Active Material for Solid-State Lasers.- Single-mode Operation of Cr-Doped GSGG and KZnF3.- Flashlamp-pumped Cr3+:GSAG and Cr3+:GSGG: Slope Efficiency, Resonator Design, Color Centers and Tunability.- Laser Action in Flashlamp-Pumped Chromium: GSG-Garnet.- Cr:YSAG - A Tunable Near-Infrared Laser Material.- A ScBO3:Cr Laser.- Tunable Lasers with Transition Metal Doped Fluoride Crystals.- Laser-Pumped Laser Measurements of Gain and Loss in SrAlF5:Cr Crystals.- V Alexandrite Lasers.- Alexandrite Laser Amplifiers.- High-Power Injection-Locked Alexandrite Ring Laser.- Low Magnification Unstable Resonators Using Radially Varying Birefringent Elements.- Injection Locking Broadly Tunable, Q-Switched Alexandrite Lasers Using Semiconductor Laser Diodes.- Panel Discussion on Chromium Tunable Lasers.- VI Titanium Sapphire Lasers.- Room-Temperature cw Operation of the Ti:Al2O3 Laser.- Continuous Wave Tunable Laser Operation of Ti3+-Doped Sapphire at 300 K..- Efficient, Tunable Ti:Sapphire Laser.- Amplifier and Line-Narrowed Oscillator Performance of Ti:Al2O3.- Oscillator and Amplifier Performance of Ti:Sapphire.- Laser Performance and Temperature-Dependent Spectroscopy of Titanium-Doped Crystals.- Flashlamp-Pumped Titanium-Doped Sapphire Laser.- Optical and Mass Spectroscopic Analyses of Titanium-Doped Sapphire Crystals.- Injection-Controlled Titanium-Doped Sapphire Laser Using a Pulsed Dye Laser.- VII Color Center Lasers.- New Color Center Lasers Based on Molecule-Doped Alkali Halides.- Stable Color Center Laser in OH-Doped NaC1 Operating in the 1.41-1.81 ?m Region.- Recent Progress in the Development of (F2+)A Color Center Lasers.- Electric Field Modulation of a Colour Centre Laser.- Synthetic Diamond for Color Center Lasers.- VIII Rare Earth Lasers.- Laser Action of Cr, Nd, Tm, Ho-Doped Garnets.- Diode-Pumped 2 ?m Holmium Laser.- Laser Operation on the Erbium and Holmium Transitions in the Yttrium-Scandium-Gallium Garnet Crystals.- Operation of the High Dopant Density Er:YAG at 2.94 ?m.- IX Neodymium Lasers.- The YA1O3:Er Laser.- Comparative Performance of Nd-Doped Solid-State Laser Materials.- CW Tunable Laser Emission of Nd3+:Na0.4Y0.6F2.2.- Monomode Neodymium-Doped Fibre Laser: Tunable Continuous-Wave Oscillation at 0.9 ?m.- Nonradiative Processes and Blue Emission in Nd:YLF.- X Applications and Nonlinear Optics.- Future Lidar Platforms in Space.- Preliminary Study of a Tunable Narrow Line Double Pulse Alexandrite Laser for Meteorological DIAL Applications.- Nonlinear Infrared Frequency Conversion in AgGaS2 and AgGaSe2.- Non-Linear Conversion of 1.3 ?m Nd:YLF Emission.- Index of Contributors.