Method and apparatus for preparing crystalline thin-films for solid-state lasers

Abstract

The present invention has been achieved by perceiving the fact to the effect that a semiconductor production process-like manner such as CVD method or the like by which materials and film thickness can be controlled in an atomic scale may be utilized in case of preparing thin-film crystal, and employing such semiconductor production process-like manner being quite different from conventional technique. The invention relates to preparation of crystalline thin-films for solid-state lasers wherein a substrate contained in a vessel under a high vacuum condition is heated, materials for forming the laser material are supplied onto the surface of the aforesaid substrate in the form of gas, ion, single metal or metal compound to grow crystal on the surface of the aforesaid substrate, and a material of active ionic species is supplied onto the surface of the aforesaid substrate simultaneously with supply of the aforesaid materials for forming the laser host crystal, thereby controlling valence number of the material of active ionic species so as to be identical with the valence number of the metal ion constituting the crystal of the aforesaid laser host crystal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.