Ti:Sapphire crystals
Main features
- Excellent thermal conductivity
- Broad gain bandwidth
- Wide range of possible pump wavelengths (typically 532 nm)
- Custom crystals available upon request
Application examples
- Mode-locked lasers with ultrashort pulses
- Multi-pass amplifiers and regenerative amplifiers
- Description
- Properties
- Absorption and emission curves
- Standard specifications
- Downloads
Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti³⁺:Al₂O₃) is the most established gain medium for femtosecond and tunable lasers. Its very broad emission bandwidth (670–1070 nm, peak around 800 nm) allows generation of sub-20 fs pulses and wide tunability for CW systems. With excellent thermal conductivity (≈33 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹) and a short upper-state lifetime (~3.2 µs), Ti:sapphire crystals enable stable operation at high repetition rates and high pump intensities. They are efficiently pumped at 488–532 nm and are the preferred choice for oscillators, regenerative and multipass amplifiers, ultrafast spectroscopy setups, and frequency combs. Crystals can be supplied with tailored doping levels, absorption, geometries, and AR or broadband coatings to meet specific design requirements.
| Spectroscopic and thermo-mechanical properties | |
|---|---|
| Absorption peak wavelength | ~500 nm |
| Absorption cross-section at peak wavelength | 38×10-20 cm2 |
| Laser wavelength | 790 (670-1070) nm |
| Lifetime of energy level | 3,2 μs |
| Emission cross-section @790 nm | 41×10-20 cm2 |
| Refractive index @800 nm | 1,76 |
| Crystal structure | hexagonal |
| Density | 3,98 g/cm3 |
| Mohs hardness | 9 |
| Thermal conductivity | 33 Wm-1K-1 |
| dn/dT | 13×10-6 K-1 |
| Thermal expansion coefficient | 5×10-6 K-1 |
| Typical doping level | 0,1-0,25 at.% |
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Ti:Sapphire crystals
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|
|---|---|
| Orientation | a-cut |
| Absorption | 90-95% of 532 nm pump radiation |
| Figure of merit | >150 (for 15 mm and longer crystals) |
| Clear aperture | >90% |
| Face dimensions tolerance | +0,0/-0,1 mm |
| Length tolerance | ±0,1 mm |
| Parallelism error | <30 arcsec |
| Perpendicularity error | <10 arcmin |
| Protective chamfers | <0,15 mm at 45˚ |
| Surface quality | 10-5 S-D |
| Surface flatness | <λ/10@632,8 nm (for 6x6 mm and smaller crystals) |
| Wavefront distortion | λ/4@632,8 nm |
| Coatings | AR(R<1%)@532 nm + AR(R<0,3%)@750-850 nm on both faces |
| LIDT | >2 J/cm2@800 nm, 300 ps |
| Mount | Unmounted |
