Laser characteristics of a Cr:CdTe crystal grown from the vapor phase

A laser based on Cr:CdTe crystals grown by seeded physical vapor transport has been investigated. It was doped during growth. Postgrowth annealing in Cd and CrSe vapors was used to reduce internal loss. The pumping was performed by radiation from a pulsed Cr:Tm:Ho:YAG laser at a wavelength of 2.1 μm. The energy in the Cr:CdTe laser pulse was 8.55 mJ with a duration of 300 μs at a wavelength near 2.7 μm at room temperature. A relatively low laser efficiency of about 3% of the input energy is supposed to be due to absorption from the excited level.