Smoothing of spiking output in Cr,Tm : YAG lasers using a germanium plate

Spiking laser oscillation, which is often observed in solid-state lasers, in a flashlamp-pumped Cr,Tm:YAG laser was smoothed by insertion of a Ge crystalline plate in the laser cavity as a nonlinear optical limiting element. Although the laser efficiency was reduced more with the use of this Ge plate than with SHG crystals, Ge is expected to be used for low-cost and field-use systems because of its robustness.