Suppression of relaxation oscillations in flashpumped, two-micron tunable solid state lasers

A solid state laser comprising:

• a laser cavity defined by an input reflective element and an output coupler reflective element to form a reflective optical path therebetween;
• a laser crystal disposed in said laser cavity, said laser crystal having a host material selected from the group consisting of YAG, YALO, YSAG, YSGG, YGG, GGG, GSAG, GSGG, LLGG and mixtures thereof, said host material being doped with Cr.sup.3+ sensitizer ions and Tm.sup.3+ activator ions sufficient to produce a laser emission at a desired wavelength in a range of wavelengths between about 1.9 microns and about 2.1 microns when said laser crystal is optically excited to produce said laser emission;
• flashlamp means for exciting said laser crystal to produce a pulsed laser emission in the range of a plurality of wavelengths determined by Stark components in the .sup.3 F.sub.4 to .sup.3 H.sub.6 laser transition in said thulium activator ions when said laser crystal is excited by said exciting means;
• means disposed in said laser cavity between said laser crystal and one of said reflective elements and oriented at Brewster's angle in said reflective path for tuning said laser emission to any desired one of said plurality of wavelengths within the range between approximately 1.9 microns and approximately 2.1 microns;
• first means oriented at Brewster's angle in said reflective path on at least one side of said tuning means for suppressing oscillation of undesired wavelengths within said laser cavity and only enabling said desired wavelength to pass out of said output coupler reflective element;
• and
• second means disposed in said reflective path for suppressing laser spiking in said laser cavity to enable said laser to emit through said output coupler reflective element a smooth, long pulse of laser emission without spiking at said desired laser transition wavelength.