ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on the crystal growth of Yb-doped fluoride single crystals for solid-state laser cooling. In the last years, the advances enabled by Yb-doped fluorides have tremendously in-creased the interest in this technology. Cryogenic operations have been achieved as well as competitive steady-state cooling powers in the temperature range below 250 K. Minimum achievable temperatures are approaching 80 K. Truly vibration-free and extremely compact, the optical cooling technology provides an ideal solution for cooling down detectors, in space applications below the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) barrier (170 K), where Peltier coolers cannot operate and other techniques lead to complex solutions. The current state-of-the-art results also prospect efficiency improvements in the higher-temperature range, between 170 and 220 K, where the TEC exhibits limited performances.
