Recent Advances in Crystalline and Ceramic Materials for Laser Optics

Dear Colleagues,

Crystalline materials and transparent ceramics are widely used for laser and optical components, such as laser gain media, nonlinear environments for parametric processes, electro- and magneto-optical media, general birefringent or dichroic optical elements, etc. Despite their wide usage, they are still the subject of extensive studies in order to broaden their application range in terms of, e.g., new laser wavelengths, higher powers or shorter laser pulses.

Single crystals have been used in laser optics since the invention of the laser in 1960. Their position remained unchallenged until the 1990s, when small-domain low-scattering polycrystalline materials were invented. These adopted the name transparent ceramics and replaced single crystals in many applications. Ceramics are superior especially when large, specially shaped or composite optical elements are needed. However, single crystals are still irreplaceable for some very high-quality optical components, mostly polarization optics and others.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences on “Recent Advances in Crystalline and Ceramic Materials for Laser Optics” encompasses new trends in the synthesis, processing, characterization, modeling, and application of crystalline and ceramic materials in laser optics. The scope of this Special Issue includes topics such as:

• Synthesis of new laser crystals and transparent ceramics;
• Characterization of laser gain media;
• Characterization of the optical materials;
• Modeling of material performance;
• Synthesis and characterization of magneto-optical materials;
• Fabrication and characterization of electro-optical materials;
• Applications of new laser optics crystals and ceramics;
• Modeling of the performance of the materials in laser systems;
• Testing of the performance of new materials in the laser systems.

Dr. Ondřej Slezák
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Lasers
• Laser crystals
• Transparent ceramics
• Laser gain media
• Optical materials properties
• Electro-optical materials
• Magneto-optical materials
• Optical materials characterization
• Anisotropic optical materials