The aim of this lab is to develop new optical amplification media for ultrashort (femtosecond, fs) laser technology. This activity is connected to the Spanish and EU laser industry and to the CLPU center by join projects and cooperation agreements.
According to the quantum uncertainty principle, light pulse duration and light frequency bandwidth are related variables, i.e. pulsed lasers are not monochromatic. Laser pulses with duration shorter than 100 fs require bandwidths in excess to about 10 nm. Single crystals developed in ICMM-CSIC incorporate laser active trivalent lanthanides (Ln=Nd, Ho, Er, Tm and Yb). The spectroscopic bandwidth of these lanthanides (usually about 1 nm) is inhomogeneously broadened by sitting them in a disordered crystal structure, i.e. crystals with sites occupied simultaneously by several different cations or left empty.