We report a room temperature (RT) operation of a Fe:CdTe laser pumped by a Q-switched 2.94 μm $\mathrm{Er}\text{:}{\mathrm{Y}}_3{\mathrm{Al}}_2{({\mathrm{AlO}}_4)}_3$ laser. The Fe:CdTe laser produced 2 mJ of output energy at $\lambda =5.55\mathrm{\mu m}$ with slope efficiency of 16% with respect to absorbed pump energy. With the use of an intracavity prism, the spectral tuning was demonstrated in the 5.1–6.3 μm range, being the longest wavelength tuning achieved for ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{2+}\text{:}\mathrm{II}–\mathrm{VI}$ lasers. The lifetime of the upper laser level was measured to be 530 ns at RT.

Monolayer (ML)-scale GaN/AlN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures for electron-beam-pumped ultraviolet (UV) emitters are grown on c-sapphire substrates by using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy under controllable metal-rich conditions, which provides the spiral growth of densely packed atomically smooth hillocks without metal droplets. These structures have ML-stepped terrace-like surface topology in the entire QW thickness range from 0.75–7 ML and absence of stress at the well thickness below 2 ML. Satisfactory quantum confinement and mitigating the quantum-confined Stark effect in the stress-free MQW structures enable one to achieve the relatively bright UV cathodoluminescence with a narrow-line (~15 nm) in the sub-250-nm spectral range. The structures with many QWs (up to 400) exhibit the output optical power of ~1 W at 240 nm, when pumped by a standard thermionic-cathode (LaB₆) electron gun at an electron energy of 20 keV and a current of 65 mA. This power is increased up to 11.8 W at an average excitation energy of 5 µJ per pulse, generated by the electron gun with a ferroelectric plasma cathode at an electron-beam energy of 12.5 keV and a current of 450 mA.

Powerful emitters of ultraviolet C (UVC) light in the wavelength range of 230–280 nm are necessary for the development of effective and safe optical disinfection technologies, highly sensitive optical spectroscopy and non-line-of-sight optical communication. This review considers UVC emitters with electron-beam pumping of heterostructures with quantum wells in an (Al,Ga)N material system. The important advantages of these emitters are the absence of the critical problem of p-type doping and the possibility of achieving record (up to several tens of watts for peak values) output optical power values in the UVC range. The review consistently considers about a decade of world experience in the implementation of various UV emitters with various types of thermionic, field-emission, and plasma-cathode electron guns (sources) used to excite various designs of active (light-emitting) regions in heterostructures with quantum wells of Al_xGa_1−xN/Al_yGa_1−yN (x = 0–0.5, y = 0.6–1), fabricated either by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition or by plasma-activated molecular beam epitaxy. Special attention is paid to the production of heterostructures with multiple quantum wells/two-dimensional (2D) quantum disks of GaN/AlN with a monolayer’s (1 ML~0.25 nm) thickness, which ensures a high internal quantum efficiency of radiative recombination in the UVC range, low elastic stresses in heterostructures, and high-output UVC-optical powers.

This article describes GaN/AlN heterostructures for ultraviolet-C (UVC) emitters with multiple (up to 400 periods) two-dimensional (2D)-quantum disk/quantum well structures with the same GaN nominal thicknesses of 1.5 and 16 ML-thick AlN barrier layers, which were grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy in a wide range of gallium and activated nitrogen flux ratios (Ga/N₂*) on c-sapphire substrates. An increase in the Ga/N₂* ratio from 1.1 to 2.2 made it possible to change the 2D-topography of the structures due to a transition from the mixed spiral and 2D-nucleation growth to a purely spiral growth. As a result, the emission energy (wavelength) could be varied from 5.21 eV (238 nm) to 4.68 eV (265 nm) owing to the correspondingly increased carrier localization energy. Using electron-beam pumping with a maximum pulse current of 2 A at an electron energy of 12.5 keV, a maximum output optical power of 50 W was achieved for the 265 nm structure, while the structure emitting at 238 nm demonstrated a power of 10 W.

We report the investigation of a repetitively pulsed laser based on a Fe : ZnSe crystal, cooled to a temperature of 195 K by two thermoelectric modules with a maximum cooling power of 34 W. Two pulsed synchronised Er : YAG lasers, operating in the free-lasing regime, are used for pumping. It is shown that the average laser power in a series of short pulses may exceed 20 W. An average power of 3.1 W is attained in the stationary temperature regime. The lasing spectrum is centred at a wavelength of 4.38 μm, and the total divergence angle is 5 mrad.