Recently, a research team from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully grew a high-entropy garnet-structured oxide crystal and achieved enhanced laser performance at the 2.8 μm wavelength band. By introducing a high-entropy design into a garnet crystal system, the team obtained a wide emission band near 2.8 μm and continuous-wave laser output with improved average power and beam quality, demonstrating the material’s strong potential as a high-performance gain medium for mid-infrared ultrashort-pulse lasers.

The results are published in Crystal Growth & Design.

Mid-infrared ultrashort-pulse lasers around 2.8 μm are of great interest for applications such as space communication and planetary exploration. However, existing laser crystals operating in this wavelength range often suffer from narrow emission bandwidths, low efficiency, or insufficient radiation resistance, making it difficult to meet the demands of efficient and stable laser operation in harsh space radiation environments.