Radiation-balanced lasing in tandem semiconductor/rare-earth surface-emitting lasers (Conference Presentation)

Since optical refrigeration has been demonstrated in rare-earth doped media, its most logical application has been development of a radiation balanced laser (RBL). While efficient and versatile rare-earth solid state laser operates only on a few discrete wavelengths. At the same time semiconductor gain medium can be easily engineered to lase over the entire visible and near IR spectrum. But achieving cooling and RBL in semiconductor medium has proven elusive due to both fundamental (hard to simultaneously achieve gain and anti-Stokes luminescence) and practical (background absorption) reasons. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to consider an alternative, tandem structure in which rare earth doped medium would cool the optically pumped semiconductor laser. In this work we provide guidelines for development of such a laser and estimate its characteristics under realistic conditions.