COLOR-CENTER POWDER LASER - THE EFFECT OF PULVERIZATION ON COLOR-CENTER CHARACTERISTICS

Stimulated emission is obtained and characterized in a powder of LiF c rystal with color centers. Absorption, luminescent, and kinetics prope rties of color centers are studied in powder samples of LiF. They are found to be rather different from those in a bulk material. The differ ence is explained by dislocations mechanically created during the pulv erization of the material. The characteristics of stimulated emission in LiF powder samples were found very different from those in scatteri ng Nd-doped luminophosphors. This difference can be ascribed to a much higher emission cross section and a much smaller lifetime of emitting centers in LiF. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.