Titanium Doped Sapphire (Ti³⁺:Al₂O₃)

Titanium doped sapphire (Ti³⁺:Al₂O₃) combines the excellent thermal, physical and optical properties of Sapphire, Ti³⁺ ion’s very large gain bandwidth, and a wide range of possible pump wavelengths. These properties make Titanium doped sapphire the most widely used crystal for wavelength tunable lasers and ultrashort pulse generation.

The Ti³⁺ ion has a very large gain bandwidth with a gain peak around 800nm. This characteristic allows a tuning range from 650nm to 1100nm and ultrashort pulse generation down to around 10fs through passive mode locking. A pulse duration around 100fs is easily achieved and the device is commercially available.

The Ti3+ has a wide absorption range located in the green spectral region. A Ti:sapphire laser is usually pumped with another laser with a wavelength of 514 to 532 nm. For most applications, an argon-ion lasers (514.5 nm), or a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG, Nd:YLF or Nd:YVO₄ laser (527-532 nm) is used.