Feasibility of Fe²⁺: ZnSe laser pumped by continuous wave HF laser

In view of the key bottleneck that Fe²⁺: ZnSe laser lacks effective high-power pumping source at present, the technical route of using a continuous wave HF chemical laser to pump Fe²⁺: ZnSe to achieve laser output in 4 μm band is proposed. The feasibility of this technical route is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The output of a continuous wave HF chemical laser pumped Fe²⁺: ZnSe laser at watt level is obtained for the first time. The output power is about 1.7 W, the central wavelength is 4.18 μm, and the lasing lasts about 2 s.