Saturation behavior of p-type germanium at CO_2 laser wavelengths

Abstract

Observed bleaching of single-crystal p-type germanium in the 10-μm region obeys an inhomogeneous broadening model for input intensities up to 100 times the saturation intensity I_s. Bleaching measurements show that I_s varies from about 3.2 MW cm⁻² at 10.59 μm to about 6.8 MW cm⁻² at 9.27 μm. No significant variation of I_s with crystal orientation is seen. Applications to CO₂ laser system isolation are discussed.