Progetto Bilaterale tra National Research Centre of Egypt e CNR ISTEC. Preparation and Characterization of Solid State laser Materials and its Application in Solar Pumped lasers. Report of the first year activity

There is a need for renewable and clean sources of energy because of the environmental concerns arising from the use of fossil fuels, in addition to the near depletion of this fuel. Moreover, the growing world population and growing global demand due to the needs of modern society causes further concerns. The Sun is a source of renewable energy, which can be converted directly or indirectly into other forms of energy, for example, converting sunlight directly into the laser radiation by using solar-pumped laser systems. The project targets the production of laser beams directly from the Sun, concentrating the solar energy on laser gain medium composed by transparent chromium and neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Cr:Nd: YAG) ceramics. The ceramic composition will be defined after a detailed literature research. This laser beam will be used to convert magnesium oxide into magnesium which would be used as eco-friendly fuel. The project includes three main steps: manufacturing of transparent Cr:Nd: YAG, study of the optical properties of these bodies and optimization of the most suitable ones, and finally testing the laser emission by using these gain media and Fresnel lenses as solar concentrators.