Abstract

Titanium-doped sapphire is a useful solid-state laser material because of its broad tunability and high gain,^1,2 Unfortunately, the laser performance has been below expectations because of an unanticipated residual or parasitic absorption. In our study of the characteristics of Ti: sapphire, we have measured the fluorescent lifetime of the Ti^{3+ 2}E level for durations extending over several e-folding intervals and have observed a nonexponential decay. Similar effects have been observed in Nd-doped glasses³ and are related to internal static field inhomogeneities.

© 1988 Optical Society of America