An ultra-low heat laser that does not rely on florescence cooling.
Generally, the inventive laser includes a pump source operable at a pump
frequency and a gain medium disposed to receive energy from the source
and lase at a frequency close to the pump frequency. In the illustrative
embodiment, the laser is a solid state laser having a gain medium which
is resonantly pumped to lase at a frequency within 5% of the pump
frequency. However, in the best mode and in accordance with the present
teachings, the gain medium lases at a frequency within 1% of the pump
frequency. In the illustrative embodiment, the laser gain medium ion has
a rich Stark energy level structure and the laser active gain medium has
oscillator strengths at transitions wavelengths that allow an ultra-low
quantum defect operation. The pump source has a wavelength output
centered to correspond to a predetermined pump band and an emission band
subtended by an absorption bandwidth thereof.