Rare-earth doped crystals for UV tunable solid state lasers

Abstract Different groups in France were involved these last years in the search and the characterization of laser materials which can be operated in the UV spectral domain. This search was initially sponsored by the European Office of the US-Army (CIRIL of Caen). It was supported then by CNRS, via the french GDR “Lasmat” consortium (CIRIL, LPCML, LTSI of St Etienne), via the ACO (Action Coordonnee Optique) project (CIRIL, LPCML, LTSI and Thomson-Thales). It could give rise to very fruitful international collaborations, thanks to an INTAS project and CNRS/University invited researcher positions, with laboratories from several countries such as the Vavilov Institute of St Petersburg, the Kazan State University in Russia, the Institute for Physical Research of Ashtarak in Armenia and the University of Verona in Italy.