JPH05267771A - Solid-state laser device and laser etching, laser marking, blood component mesuruing, and laser anneal device thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a solid-state laser device having a high-efficiency, high- output pumping lamp capable of generating CW laser light of a wavelength shorter than a prescribed wavelength. CONSTITUTION:Tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b provided with fine filaments 2a' and 2b' are enveloped in cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b whose peripheries are coated with film material high in transmissivity to a wavelength band less than 0.85mum and high in reflectivity to a wavelength band larger than 0.85mum. Exiting light less than 0.8mum in wavelength radiated from the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b is made to irradiate a crystal rod 1 which contains trivalent chrome ions penetrating through the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b for densely exciting it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a solid-state laser device, and a laser etching device, a laser marking device, a blood component measuring device, and a laser annealing device using the solid-state laser device, and more particularly to about 0.5 micron or less. The present invention relates to a solid-state laser device capable of generating a high-power continuous wave with high efficiency at a wavelength, a laser etching device, a laser marking device, a blood component measuring device, and a laser annealing device using this solid-state laser device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, an excimer laser has been generally used as a high-power laser having an output of watt class or more in a short wavelength band below the visible range.

However, since this is a pulse operation only, as a laser capable of producing a high output by a continuous wave (hereinafter referred to as CW), an argon ion laser (main oscillation wavelength is 0.1.
514 micron and 0.488 micron) and the second harmonic of a YAG laser (solid-state laser using Y ₃ Al ₅ O ₁₂ crystal mixed with trivalent neodymium ions as a laser medium) (laser using a non-linear optical element) Laser light having a half wavelength is generated from the oscillating fundamental wave, and the generation of this laser light is generally called SHG.
In the case of a laser, the wavelength is 0.532 micron).

Therefore, as a laser capable of generating CW laser light in the blue to ultraviolet region having a wavelength of about 0.45 micron or less, mainly a helium cadmium laser (oscillation wavelengths are mainly 0.325 micron and 0.4416 micron) is used. Below, H
eCd laser) and the like.

However, argon ion laser and HeC
The d-laser is an ion laser, and its electric efficiency is about 0.0.
It is extremely low at 01% or less, and since it is a gas laser, the laser gas and electrodes may deteriorate, and there is also a problem in terms of life such that the laser tube must be replaced every several thousand hours at the longest.

Furthermore, in HeCd lasers,
At wavelengths of 0.325 micron and 0.4416 micron, it was difficult to achieve high output since only outputs of about 50 mW and 200 mW were obtained.

On the other hand, in a solid-state laser having a characteristic that the output power is higher and the efficiency is higher than that of the ion laser, and the laser medium can be used semipermanently, the efficiency as a whole is not deteriorated. Since there is currently no practical device that can directly oscillate a laser at a wavelength of 0.5 micron or less using a lamp or the like as an excitation light source without using the laser as the excitation light source, the method of shortening the wavelength by SHG is advantageous. is there. Particularly, in the wavelength conversion called an internal cavity type (hereinafter referred to as internal wavelength conversion) in which a nonlinear optical crystal is placed in the optical axis of the laser cavity, the wavelength conversion efficiency is 30%.
It is said that it can be increased by as much as 50%.

Therefore, in order for the wavelength of the second harmonic wave due to the internal wavelength conversion to be 0.5 micron or less, the wavelength of the fundamental wave must be 1 micron or less. Wavelength 1
It is conceivable to excite a solid-state laser capable of lasing at a micron or less with a lamp that emits light continuously, and generate a second harmonic from the fundamental wave oscillated thereby by internal wavelength conversion.

With respect to this, also in the YAG laser,
It is known that laser light having a wavelength of 0.473 micron can be obtained by oscillating at a wavelength of 0.946 micron. However, in that case, a semiconductor laser is generally used as an excitation light source, and it is difficult to obtain a high-power laser beam using an inexpensive lamp.

On the other hand, many crystals containing trivalent chromium ions correspond to crystals for lasers having an oscillation wavelength band of 1 μm or less, particularly in the wavelength range of 0.7 to 0.9 μm. It has been known.

Regarding these crystals, for example, Journal of Applied Physics (Journal
of Applied Physics), Vol. 66, No. 1, 1989.
Years, 1051-1056.

However, using these crystals as a laser medium,
Most of the lasers that use a lamp as an excitation light source are conventional pulse lasers excited by a flash lamp. The reason will be described below.

In the case of the pulse operation, the energy charged in the condenser or the like is converted into light all at once and the light is emitted in a short time for operating the flash lamp, so that the peak power of the excitation light can be easily increased. That is, the excitation photon density becomes very high only during a short period of light emission, and high-density excitation can be performed. As a result, the density of excited atoms is increased, so that the gain of the laser is increased. On the other hand, in CW operation, the lamp always emits light,
The power of the pumping light is orders of magnitude smaller than the peak power of the pulse. Therefore, high-density pumping becomes impossible, the gain of the laser becomes low, and the laser operation becomes extremely difficult in general.

On the other hand, an alexandrite laser (oscillating at a wavelength of about 0.8 micron) using alexandrite, which is a kind of crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, as a laser medium is operated by CW by a mercury arc lamp or a xenon arc lamp. Was being attempted. However, when the mercury arc lamp is used, the ratio of the ultraviolet light contained in the strong absorption band near the wavelength of about 0.4 micron of the laser medium to the emitted light is high, so the excitation efficiency is higher than that when the xenon arc lamp is used. Has been said to be high. Regarding this, for example, IEE Journal
Of Quantum Electronics (IEEE Journal o
f Quantum Electronics), Volume 24, No. 6, 1988
Years, 1141 to 1150. In particular, many of the crystals containing trivalent chromium ions are
An absorption band is included around a wavelength of about 0.6 to 0.7 micron. To continuously excite this, C that emits light in this wavelength band is used.
W lamp is required. For this purpose, a xenon arc lamp, a mercury arc lamp, a krypton arc lamp or the like is usually used.

However, FIGS. 13, 14 and 1
As can be seen from the spectral characteristics of each of these lamps, which shows the relationship between the wavelength (ηm) and the relative intensity (%) in Fig. 5, no matter which of these lamps is used, the wavelength is 0.59 microns to 0.5.
Almost no emission occurs between 75 microns. As a result, these lamps could not be efficiently excited.

Further, it is generally known that when the second harmonic is generated, the wavelength conversion efficiency becomes higher when the fundamental wave is oscillated in the single mode.

Therefore, in a solid-state laser in which a normal rod is used as a laser medium for pumping by a lamp, a plate having a pinhole with a diameter of 1 mm to 2 mm in the resonator (hereinafter referred to as an aperture) in order to oscillate in a single mode.
Is being inserted. This is because the beam diameter of the oscillated laser light becomes small, and the Fresnel number described below can be made small.

The Fresnel number is defined as a value obtained by dividing the square of the beam radius of the laser beam by the resonator length and the laser wavelength. As this value increases, diffraction loss increases. In addition, since the higher the mode is, the larger the loss is, it becomes difficult to oscillate from these higher modes. Therefore, if the Fresnel number is set to a certain level or less, oscillation becomes easy in the single mode which is the TEM ₀₀ mode.

Regarding the above, for example, the bell
System Technical Journal (The Bell System
Technical Journal), March, 1961, p
p.453-488.

Further, in the case of laser processing such as marking on a photoresist plate which is an ultraviolet absorber or production of a three-dimensional model using an ultraviolet curable resin, or a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus using laser light (laser doping, laser etching). , Laser CVD, etc.), a CW laser that can continuously draw on each object is used when processing with spatial selectivity is performed. In particular,
An ion laser such as a HeCd laser that oscillates in the ultraviolet region having a high absorptivity for each object, or an argon ion laser that oscillates in the ultraviolet region but produces an output of several W in the visible region has been used. ..

[0021]

However, the CW-operated alexandrite laser which is the above-mentioned conventional laser device has the following problems.

That is, the mercury arc lamp as the excitation light source has a very short life of 20 to 30 hours, and is reflected in the ultraviolet region by the reflecting mirror for condensing the light from the mercury arc lamp on the alexandrite crystal. Although it is necessary to apply silver plating with a high rate, there was a problem in terms of life as the silver plating was gradually damaged by the strong ultraviolet light contained in the light from the mercury arc lamp. Furthermore, since the mercury arc lamp contains mercury that is harmful to the human body, it has become an environmental problem when the lamp that has reached the end of its life is discarded.

Regarding the technical problem of the alexandrite laser pumped by mercury arc lamp, for example, materials of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Study Group of Optical and Quantum Devices, 1990,
OQD-90-10, pages 29-37.

Further, when the aperture is inserted in the resonator, it can oscillate only with a thin beam that can pass through the pinhole of the aperture. On the other hand, a generally used rod has a diameter of 3 mm or more, and the entire rod is excited by being irradiated with excitation light. The ratio of the part that oscillates becomes low. As a result, the amount of pumping light that contributes to laser oscillation is reduced, and the pumping efficiency, which is the laser output of the oscillating fundamental wave with respect to the power of pumping light, becomes low.

On the other hand, even if a thin rod having a diameter of 3 mm or less is used so that only a thin beam can be oscillated from the beginning without using an aperture, the excitation efficiency should be increased for the reason described below. I couldn't.

That is, the excitation light from a lamp that has been conventionally used to excite a solid-state laser is condensed in a rod by using an elliptical lamp house. This has a function of transferring an image near one of the two focal points in the elliptical shape to the other focal point. Therefore, it is common practice to place the lamp near one focus and the rod near the other focus.

However, since the excitation lamp usually discharges gas to emit light, the inner diameter of the lamp tube is at most about 3 mm. Further, when the lamp has a high output, it is necessary to increase the volume of the enclosed gas, and the inner diameter becomes large.

Therefore, even if the elliptical lamp house is used as described above, the image to which the light emitted from the lamp tube is transferred is as large as the inner diameter of the lamp tube. That is, it is impossible to collect all of the excitation light smaller than the size of the light emitting portion of the excitation light source.

Therefore, the excitation light absorbed in the thin rod is only a part of the excitation light emitted from the lamp, and the excitation efficiency could not be increased.

If the aperture or the thin rod is not used, the beam diameter of the fundamental wave becomes thick. Therefore, when the beam is focused on the nonlinear optical crystal by using a lens or the like to focus the beam in the nonlinear optical crystal, Therefore, it is extremely difficult to efficiently perform wavelength conversion with a nonlinear optical crystal having a small angle allowable range.

On the other hand, the β-BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal, which is widely used as a nonlinear optical crystal capable of efficiently generating the second harmonic in the visible to ultraviolet range, has a relatively small angle allowable range. Was a problem. For example, if the fundamental wave is less than about 1 micron, it cannot be used, but the wavelength 1.064
For KTiOPO ₄ crystals, which are widely used to generate the second harmonic of a YAG laser oscillating in the micron, the angular tolerance is approximately 15 to 68 mrad · cm. On the other hand, since the β-BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal has a wavelength of about 0.4 mrad · cm, when generating ultraviolet light by wavelength conversion, the fundamental wave beam is simply focused strongly on the nonlinear optical crystal. However, the wavelength conversion efficiency may not increase.

Further, when performing laser processing on an ultraviolet absorbing material or processing having spatial selectivity in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the HeCd laser has a low output, and the argon ion laser has an absorptivity to an object. Both of them took a long time because of low. Further, since it is a low-efficiency ion laser, power consumption is high, and further, it is necessary to interrupt the processing for a long time when exchanging the laser tube due to its life, which requires cost and labor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points,
The first purpose is that the internal wavelength conversion
In particular, it is to provide a solid-state laser device capable of generating CW laser light with high output and high efficiency at 0.5 micron or less.

The second object of the present invention is to provide an application device (laser etching device, which uses a solid-state laser device which can process at a higher speed than before without using an ion laser and can operate stably for a long period of time). Laser marking device, blood component measuring device, laser annealing device).

[0035]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above first object, a rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which is a laser medium, and a rod for exciting the rod are provided. A solid-state laser device composed of a light source that uses thermal radiation from a filament for excitation light with which the rod is irradiated, and a lamp house that houses these light source and rod, and oscillating electron transition using a vibration level in the ground state And a trivalent chromium ion-containing crystal, a light source utilizing heat radiation by a filament, and a lamp house having at least a part of an elliptical shape.

Here, the lamp house of which at least a part has an elliptical shape includes not only a single ellipse but also a double ellipse and a spheroid.

Further, in order to efficiently generate the second harmonic, when the resonator length of the laser is set to L (mm), the size of the filament has a radius of (0.016L).
The square root of is less than or equal to mm.

Further, in order to operate the laser with high efficiency and high output, the crystal contains L containing trivalent chromium ions.
ISrAlF ₆ crystal, or trivalent LiCaAlF ₆ crystal containing chromium ions, or trivalent LiSrGaF ₆ crystal containing chromium ions (hereinafter, respectively, Cr: Li
SrAlF ₆ , Cr: LiCaAlF ₆ , and Cr: L
It is shown as iSrGaF ₆ . ) Is used.

Further, the filament has a high transmittance for a part of the wavelength band included in the absorption band of the crystal in order to efficiently excite it, and at least a part of the wavelength band above this wavelength band. On the other hand, it is covered with a cylindrical tube coated with a coating having a high reflectance.

In order to achieve the second object of the present invention, the above solid-state laser device, a mirror for changing the direction of continuous wave laser light in the ultraviolet region extracted from the solid-state laser device, and the mirror. A laser etching apparatus comprising a lens for squeezing a laser beam whose direction is changed by, and a reaction container accommodating a substrate to be processed which is subjected to an etching treatment by condensing the laser beam squeezed by the lens, the solid-state laser A device, a mirror for scanning a continuous wave laser beam in the ultraviolet region extracted from the solid-state laser device, a laser beam scanned by the mirror, and a pattern to be marked are formed. The liquid crystal mask and the laser light that passes through the liquid crystal mask and has the pattern to be marked are polarized, and the pattern to be marked is not formed. Laser marking device having a polarizing beam splitter for transmitting the laser light and a photoresist plate on which a predetermined pattern is marked by the laser light polarized by the polarizing beam splitter, generating near infrared laser light A laser generator, a part of a living body for measuring a blood component is inserted, a dark box having a photodiode for detecting a blood component hit by the laser light from the laser generator that has passed through the living body, and a dark box from the photodiode. A blood component measuring device comprising a controller for receiving a signal and changing the oscillation wavelength of the laser generator, the solid-state laser device, and a continuous wave of a wavelength of about 0.35 micron extracted from the solid-state laser device. A mirror for changing the optical path of the laser light, an optical system for linearly converging the laser light whose optical path is changed by the mirror, and the optical system The laser annealing device is provided with a substrate on which a film to be processed, which is annealed by linearly focusing laser light focused in one direction by a system, is placed.

[0041]

[Function] In a crystal capable of vibrating electronic transition utilizing the vibrational level in the ground state, the final level of the laser is
It is a vibrational level in the ground level composed of many vibrational levels, but it is located at a higher level than most of the energy levels due to the heat distribution at room temperature, so it operates as a four-level laser. can do. As a result, the threshold of population inversion becomes low, and CW operation is easy.

A light source (hereinafter, referred to as an incandescent light bulb) utilizing heat radiation by a filament can emit light continuously in terms of time, and has a spectral characteristic centered in the near infrared region in terms of wavelength. , But includes visible light having a wavelength of about 1 micron or less. On the other hand, a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions having an oscillation wavelength band at a wavelength of 1 micron or less has an absorption band at a wavelength of 1 micron or less, and thus can be excited by this light source. In particular, Cr: LiSrGaF ₆ , C
In r: LiSrAlF ₆ and Cr: LiCaAlF _6, etc., their absorption bands are between wavelengths of 0.6 μm and 0.7 μm, as can be seen from the absorption characteristics shown in FIGS. 16, 17 and 18. Is the center. Therefore, the conventional normal xenon arc lamp, mercury arc lamp, or krypton arc lamp cannot efficiently excite, but if a tungsten halogen lamp, which is a kind of incandescent lamp, is used, the filament temperature can be as high as 3000K to 3400K. Can work with
As a result, as can be seen from the spectral characteristics shown in FIG.
It also contains a lot of light having a wavelength of 0.7 micron or less, and can efficiently excite the crystal.

If a filament is placed near one focus position and a laser medium is placed near the other focus position using an elliptical lamp house, the excited portion is about the size of the filament. Become. On the other hand, since the filament is made of tungsten wire etc.,
It is easy to reduce the diameter to about 3 mm or less, and the beam diameter of the laser light of the fundamental wave oscillating from the laser medium is about the size of the thin filament without using an aperture, and the single mode It becomes easy to oscillate. Therefore, most of the excitation light is used for laser oscillation, and not only the utilization efficiency of the excitation light can be improved, but also the excitation light is condensed in a thin and small volume, and high density excitation can be achieved. As a result, the gain of the laser is increased and CW operation is facilitated.

Furthermore, most of the crystals containing trivalent chromium ions such as those mentioned above are contained in the base crystal at 3%.
Since many of them can mix valent chromium ions in high concentration of several percent or more, they can strongly absorb the excitation light and it becomes easy to focus the excitation light in a small volume by the laser medium. However, the feature of being a thin filament as an excitation light source can be effectively utilized.

As the size of the filament,
If the radius is less than the square root of (0.016L) and the wavelength of the fundamental wave is about 0.8 micron, the Fresnel number is about 20 or more. As a result, in the plane-to-plane resonator, the diffraction loss with respect to the TEM ₁₀ mode is about 0.8% or more, and the loss is further increased with respect to modes higher than the TEM ₁₀ mode. On the other hand, when lasing with CW, the gain of the laser is
In some cases, it is about 1%,
It may decrease by an order of magnitude or more. Therefore, higher-order modes are less likely to oscillate than the TEM ₁₀ mode in which the diffraction loss is close to 1%, and are easily oscillated in the single mode.

Further, the above-mentioned Cr: LiSrAlF ₆ , C
r: LiCaAlF ₆ or Cr: LiSrGaF ₆
Lasers have a high stimulated emission cross section, which is higher than that of other common crystals containing trivalent chromium ions, while the stimulated emission cross section is 10 −20 square centimeters or less. Is more suitable for the present invention as a laser medium for higher output and higher efficiency.

Incidentally, these Cr: LiSrAlF ₆ , C
Regarding r: LiCaAlF ₆ and Cr: LiSrGaF ₆ , for example, Technical Digest on Conference o
n Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1991 (Optical Soci
ety of America, Washington, DC, 1991), Paper
CThH1.

In particular, these Cr: LiSrAlF ₆ , C
In r: LiCaAlF ₆ and Cr: LiSrGaF ₆ , the concentration of trivalent chromium ions was up to about 15 atomic%, which was higher than that of other crystals containing trivalent chromium ions.
It can be made relatively high and the irradiated excitation light can be absorbed in the crystal at a short distance of about 3 mm or less.

In this case, as the crystal, a thin rod-shaped crystal having a diameter of 3 mm or less, or a thin plate-shaped crystal having a thickness of 3 mm or less can be used, and the beam diameter of the oscillating fundamental wave laser beam can be similarly thin. Become. As a result, the Fresnel number can be reduced and the single mode can easily oscillate.

It has been reported that concentration quenching does not easily occur in these crystals even if the concentration of trivalent chromium ions is increased, and thus the fluorescence lifetime is not shortened and CW operation becomes difficult. Absent.

Further, as can be seen from FIG. 19, the spectral characteristics of the incandescent light bulb also include a wavelength region longer than the absorption band of the crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, so that a part of the wavelength band included in this absorption band is included. If the incandescent lamp is inserted into a cylindrical tube that has a high transmittance with respect to, and is coated with a high reflectance for at least some wavelength bands above this wavelength band, this cylindrical tube will be Most of the light that passes through and irradiates the laser medium can be included in the absorption band of the crystal, and the crystal can be efficiently excited.

Of the excitation light, light in at least a part of the above wavelength band does not contribute to the excitation of the crystal,
Since the light is reflected on the surface of this coating, it is possible not only to wastefully heat the crystal, but also to redirect it to the filament of the incandescent lamp and absorb it there. As a result, since these lights are used for heating the filament, the temperature of the filament rises and the spectral characteristics of the emitted light can be shortened. Alternatively, the power supplied to heat the filament can be reduced, resulting in higher laser electrical efficiency.

The laser medium is Cr: LiSrAlF.
₆ , Cr: LiCaAlF ₆ , or Cr: LiSr
When GaF ₆ is used, the central wavelength of the absorption band is located between 0.6 micron and 0.7 micron.
If a W lamp such as mercury arc lamp, xenon arc lamp, or krypton arc lamp is used, these lamps do not have strong emission lines between wavelengths of 0.6 and 0.7 microns, so they can be excited efficiently. On the other hand, an incandescent light bulb contains a large amount of light having a wavelength of 0.6 to 0.7 microns as described above, and therefore can be efficiently excited.

Further, as described above, the beam diameter of the oscillating fundamental wave can be reduced without using an aperture,
When the internal wavelength conversion is performed, even when the fundamental wave to be incident on the nonlinear optical crystal is narrowed down by using a lens or the like, the narrowing angle is sufficiently small. Therefore, as a nonlinear optical crystal, β with a small angle tolerance is
Be used -BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal, it is possible to increase the conversion efficiency sufficiently.

[0055]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the solid-state laser device 100 of the present invention.

A solid-state laser device 100 shown in the figure has a rod 1 made of Cr: LiSrAlF ₆ as a laser medium.
Are excited by the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b, which are a type of incandescent lamp.

This tungsten halogen lamp 2a, 2
In b, a filament 2a 'made of tungsten,
2b 'is stored in the filaments 2a', 2b '
Is an elongated coil having a diameter of 2 mm, and the excitation light emitted from them is applied to the rod 1. Since the rod 1 also has a diameter of 2 mm, the excitation light is condensed on the rod 1 with almost no loss.

The resonator of the laser is composed of planar total reflection mirrors 4 and 4 ', and the dichroic mirror 6 bends the optical axis to form an L-shape as shown in the figure.
Further, a prism 10 for selecting the wavelength of the fundamental wave to oscillate and an etalon 11 for narrowing the wavelength width of the fundamental wave to oscillate are inserted in the resonator.

The dichroic mirror 6 has a high reflectance of 99% or more for light having a wavelength of 0.7 micron to 1.0 micron, but has a high reflectance for light having a wavelength of 0.35 micron to 0.5 micron. Have a high transmittance of 90% or more.

When the rod 1 is excited, Cr: LiSr
The laser light of the fundamental wave oscillates at a wavelength of about 0.8 micron in the oscillation wavelength range of AlF ₆ , and the CW laser light 9 is obtained outside the resonator in the ultraviolet region of the wavelength of about 0.4 micron which is the second harmonic. Be done.

Cr: LiSrA as the rod 1
The concentration of trivalent chromium ions in 1F ₆ is as high as about 5 atom%, and the excitation light with which it is irradiated is
More than 95% is absorbed while traveling 2 mm through the crystal, and rod 1
The proportion of the excitation light that penetrates through is reduced.

Further, since the filaments 2a ', 2b' and the rod 1 are both thin and have a diameter of 2 mm,
The beam diameter of the oscillating fundamental wave is also about 2 mm. Also,
Since the resonator length is about 50 cm, the Fresnel number is about 3. As a result, the diffraction loss in the TEM ₁₀ mode becomes about 10%, and only the TEM ₀₀ mode oscillates, and the single mode is easily generated. As a result, the efficiency of wavelength conversion by the nonlinear optical crystal 8 can be increased. A β-BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal is used for the nonlinear optical crystal 8.

Furthermore, as shown in the embodiment,
In the present invention, since the beam diameter of the fundamental wave can be reduced, the intensity of the laser light in the nonlinear optical crystal 8 can be increased, and the laser light need not be focused using a lens or a concave mirror as in the conventional case. The wavelength can be converted efficiently.

Although not used in this embodiment,
When the fundamental wave is condensed in the nonlinear optical crystal 8 by using a lens as in the conventional case, the beam diameter of the fundamental wave can be made small, so that the narrowing angle of the laser light incident on the nonlinear optical crystal 8 is sufficient. Can be made smaller. Therefore, even if a β-BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal having a small angle allowable range is used, wavelength conversion can be efficiently performed.

In particular, the rod 1 contains trivalent chromium ions of 5
Although the content is as high as about atomic%, it is generally easy to mix trivalent chromium ions in a high concentration, so that the excitation light can be sufficiently absorbed even if the diameter of the rod 1 is as small as 2 mm. ..

However, in the YAG laser, the neodymium ions to be mixed can be mixed up to about 1.3 atom% at the highest, so that the excitation light cannot be absorbed relatively strongly. Therefore, the rod 1 usually has a diameter of about 4 mm.
The above thick ones were used.

As a result, even if a tungsten halogen lamp having a small diameter is used as the excitation light source, the beam of the fundamental wave is not thin and it is difficult to oscillate in a single mode. It is necessary to condense the light. If the β-BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal other than the KTiOPO ₄ crystal having a large angle allowable range is used for the nonlinear optical crystal 8, it may be difficult to increase the wavelength conversion efficiency.

Further, in this embodiment, the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b are housed in the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b whose outer peripheral surface is coated. The characteristic of this coating is that it has a high transmittance for light with a wavelength of 0.8 μm or less, and a high transmittance of 98% or more for light with a wavelength of 0.6 μm to 0.75 μm. And has a high reflectance of 95% or more with respect to light having a wavelength of 0.8 to 3 microns.

As a result, the spectral characteristics of the light that can pass through this coating surface are as shown in FIG. 20, so that the light emitted from the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b has a wavelength of 0.8 μm or less. The light passes through the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b, respectively, and is applied to the rod 1. C
As shown in FIG. 17, the absorption band of r: LiSrAlF ₆ has a peak at a wavelength of about 0.65 μm and a wavelength of 0.6.
Since the wavelength ranges from micron to 0.8 micron, most of the excitation light emitted is absorbed by the crystal, and this crystal can be efficiently excited.

Light having a wavelength of 0.8 micron to approximately 3 micron is reflected by the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b, respectively, and travels again into the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b, and then to the filaments 2a 'and 2b'. Is irradiated. As a result, the filaments 2a 'and 2b' are heated, and the amount of current supplied to them can be reduced,
The electrical efficiency of the extracted laser can be improved.

Thus, the solid-state laser device of the present invention can be operated more efficiently by using the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b coated on the outer peripheral surface together.

Conventionally, the characteristic of this type of coating is that it reflects light in the visible region and ultraviolet region with a wavelength of 0.5 microns or less and transmits light in the visible region and near infrared region with a wavelength of 0.5 microns or more. There were many things to do. The reason is
The conventional device is targeted for the YAG laser, and the absorption band of the YAG crystal is around 0.8 micron, while
For a xenon flash lamp etc. as an excitation light source, Y
This is because a large amount of visible light or ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 0.8 μm or less that hardly contributes to the excitation of the AG crystal is included.

However, this type of coating has been used for a tube of a lamp that emits a gas such as a xenon flash lamp, but in that case, there is a problem described below.

The characteristics of the coating depend on the incident angle for light of a certain wavelength, and the characteristics of the transmittance change as the distance from the set angle (generally means vertical incidence at an incident angle of 0 degree) increases. To do. That is, it is known that the wavelength at which the transmittance changes significantly (hereinafter referred to as the boundary wavelength) shifts to the shorter wavelength side than the boundary wavelength for vertically incident light.

Therefore, in the lamp that emits gas, as described above, since the portion that emits light is relatively thick, the incident angle of light that strikes the coating surface of the cylindrical tube located around this is widely distributed, For some light, the boundary wavelength was sometimes shortened. Therefore, in order to prevent the incident angle from being greatly separated from 0 degree, for example, a method of using a coated cylindrical tube whose diameter is twice or more as large as the inner diameter of the lamp tube is proposed. However, according to this, when the cylindrical tube becomes thicker, the elliptical lamp house including these becomes larger. As a result, in the lamp house, the proportion of the excitation light reflected by hitting the side surfaces on both sides orthogonal to the elliptical inner surface increases, and the number of reflections of the excitation light until reaching the rod increases, so that the proportion of the excitation light attenuated Problems such as large size occur.

If the cylindrical tube becomes thicker, the gap between the cylindrical tube and the lamp tube inserted therein becomes wider. As a result, the flow rate of the cooling water for the lamp flowing therethrough is reduced, which causes a problem in cooling the lamp.

On the other hand, in the present invention, since the light source uses the elongated filament made of tungsten, these filaments 2a 'and 2b' should be located on the central axes of the coated cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b. From
Even if a thick cylindrical tube is not used, most of the emitted light will enter the coating surface at a right angle. As a result, the boundary wavelength does not shift.

In particular, as the characteristics of the coating used in the present invention, the boundary wavelength of vertically incident light is about 0.8 μm, and since the light having a wavelength of 0.8 μm or more is reflected, a part of When the boundary wavelength for light becomes shorter than 0.8 micron, the rod 1 is Cr: LiSrA.
Since the absorption band of 1F ₆ is in the wavelength range of 0.6 μm to 0.8 μm, some light having a wavelength included in the absorption band may not be absorbed by the rod 1. As a result, the excitation efficiency may decrease.

As described above, according to the present invention, the coating having the characteristic of having high reflection at the boundary wavelength or more is used, and the crystal absorption band exists at the boundary wavelength or less. However, in the present invention, since the filament is used, the ratio of the light whose boundary wavelength changes can be reduced, so that the excitation efficiency does not decrease.

The excitation light with which the rod 1 is irradiated includes
Since a component having a wavelength of 0.8 μm or more is scarcely contained, unnecessary light for exciting the rod 1 is not irradiated and the rod 1 is not wastefully heated. Therefore, a thermal lens effect due to the temperature rise of the rod 1 and a thermal adverse effect peculiar to the solid-state laser such as a birefringence effect can be significantly reduced.

Further, in the present invention, the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b using the filaments 2a 'and 2b' made of tungsten are used, but an incandescent lamp using a filament made of a material having a high melting point other than tungsten is used. You may use it for a light source. For example, since hafnium carbide has a melting point of about 4160K and is higher than 3683K of tungsten, it can operate at a high temperature near 4000K, and the spectral characteristic of the light source has a peak near a wavelength of about 0.7 micron. The ratio of light contained in the absorption band of the crystal is larger than that used for, and the excitation efficiency can be increased. In addition to hafnium carbide, the same effect can be obtained by using tantalum carbide having a melting point of about 4150K.

FIG. 2 shows the rod 1, the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b and the filament 2 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of cross sections perpendicular to a ′, 2b ′ and cylindrical tubes 3a, 3b.

The rod 1, the tungsten halogen lamps 2a and 2b, the filaments 2a 'and 2b', and the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b are inserted in the lamp house 12. The inner surface of the lamp house 12 is gold-plated, and it emits visible and near-infrared light with a wavelength of 0.6 microns or more
Reflect more than%. As shown in FIG. 2, the lamp house 12 is a combination of two parts whose inner surface is a part of an elliptical shape, and one of the two ellipses of each part has almost the same focus. The rod 1 is placed at that position, and the filaments 2a 'and 2b' are placed near the other focal position, respectively. The lamp house 12 is generally called a double elliptical lamp house.

Of the excitation light emitted from the filaments 2a 'and 2b' to the surroundings, the light having a wavelength of 0.6 to 0.8 microns which is transmitted through the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b is condensed near the rod 1. It will be. In addition, reference numeral 13 in the drawing denotes a cooling pipe for flowing cooling water for cooling the rod 1.

The filaments 2a 'and 2b' are located near the centers of the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b, respectively, and are sufficiently smaller than the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b. As a result, the light emitted from the filaments 2a 'and 2b' is
It is incident almost perpendicularly to 3b. As a result, the light having a wavelength of 0.8 micron or more reflected here is returned in the opposite direction, and most of the light is irradiated on the filaments 2a 'and 2b'. In this way, since the emitted light is incident on the cylindrical tube almost perpendicularly, the wavelength-dependent characteristic of the transmittance on the coating surface of the cylindrical tube is accurately reflected, and the wavelength is from 0.6 μm to 0.8 μm. It does not reflect more than a few percent of micron light.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the structure of the solid-state laser device 200 of the present invention.

Similar to FIG. 2, this sectional view relates to a plane perpendicular to the laser beam and the excitation lamp.

In the figure, a rod 201 made of Cr: LiSrAlF ₆ is inserted in a cylindrical tube 203. This rod 201 is placed near one of the focal points of the elliptical shape on the inner surface of the lamp house 204. Cylindrical tube 203
A coating having the same characteristics as the coating applied to the cylindrical tubes 3a and 3b in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the. Further, cooling water flows in the gap between the cylindrical tube 203 and the rod 201.
The excitation lamp 202 uses a linear filament 202 'made of tungsten. Filament 2
As shown in the figure, six of the two 02 'are parallel to each other and are located in the vicinity of the other elliptical focus on the inner surface of the lamp house 204. As a result, of the light emitted from the filament 202 ′, the light having a wavelength of 0.6 to 0.8 μm is substantially transmitted through the cylindrical tube 203 and the rod 20.
1 can be irradiated. On the other hand, wavelength 0.8
Light having a diameter of micron or more enters the cylindrical tube 203 almost vertically, and when reflected, the light is returned in almost the opposite direction, and as a result, returns to the filament 202 ′, which is irradiated and used for heating. Be seen.

In this embodiment, the linear filament 2
Six 02's are used, and the reason for this will be described below.

As the rod 201, a rod having a length of about several centimeters is used, and in order to excite it efficiently, it is necessary to make the length of the filament to the same extent. However, since a filament that has been conventionally wound into a coil is generally used, even if a thin filament is used, the diameter of the coil may become as thick as 2 mm or more. On the other hand, when the linear filament is used, the diameter can be further reduced and the excitation can be performed with higher density. However, since the excitation light is radiated from the surface of the filament, if only one linear filament is used, the surface area becomes extremely smaller than that in the case of a coil and the amount of light is significantly reduced. Therefore, by using a plurality of linear filaments in parallel, it is not necessary to reduce the total surface area and the light quantity of the excitation light. Furthermore, although six filaments 202 'are used here, one of them has a thin diameter of about 0.5 mm, so even if six filaments are collected, the overall diameter can be reduced to about 2 mm or less. ..

Also, in this embodiment, the cylindrical tube on the rod side is coated, and as a result, even if it is heated by the light from the lamp, it is cooled by the cooling water flowing in this circular tube. , The life of the coating film is extended.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the structure of the solid-state laser device 300.

A major feature of this embodiment is that a thin plate-shaped laser medium 301 is used. The details of the configuration will be described below.

The laser medium 301 is a thin plate having a thickness of about 1 mm and is made of Cr: LiSrGaF ₆ . Cr: Li
SrGaF ₆ is said to have a small loss with respect to laser light and is suitable for CW operation.

The excitation lamps 302a and 302b are tungsten halogen lamps whose filaments 302a 'and 302b' are made of tungsten. Filament 302
As a 'and 302b', thin coil-shaped members having a diameter of about 1 mm are used.

Similar to the first embodiment, the lamp houses 304a and 304b have elliptical inner surfaces, and the filaments 302a 'and 302b' are located near one of the focal positions. The central portion 301 'of the laser medium 301 is located near the other focus position.

In order to cool the laser medium 301 from both sides thereof, cooling water is supplied with the arrows 305a, 30a showing the water flow.
It is flowing in the direction of 5b. Further, the glass plates 306a and 306b forming part of the flow path of the cooling water have a high transmittance at a wavelength of about 0.8 micron or less on the left and right surfaces in the drawing, respectively, and have a wavelength of 0 or less. A coating having a high reflectance is applied to 0.85 micron or more.

Further, 307a and 307b are triangular rod-shaped stainless steel rods placed for smoothing the flow of the cooling water.

In this embodiment, the laser medium 301 contains trivalent chromium ions having a very high concentration of about 10 atomic%. As a result, the excitation light can be sufficiently absorbed even if the laser medium 301 having a thin thickness of about 1 mm is used. As a result, the central portion 301 'is excited strongly and with high density, so that the CW fundamental wave can be easily oscillated.

By the way, a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions and capable of vibrating electronic transition utilizing the vibrational level in the ground state has trivalent chromium ions higher than several percent for the reason described below. It can be mixed in a concentration.

The trivalent chromium ions substituted when the crystals are mixed with trivalent chromium ions are mainly aluminum ions (Al) and gallium ions (Ga). These ionic radii are about 0.53Å,
And 0.62Å (provided that the surrounding ions form an octahedron), which is 0.62Å of chromium ions.
Have a size close to or nearly equal to. Therefore, the chromium ions are mixed in a high concentration because they are replaced with ease.

On the other hand, in the case of the YAG laser, the ionic radius of the neodymium ion is 1.12Å, which is about 0.1 than the radius of the yttrium (Y) ion to be replaced, which is 1.02Å.
Since Å is also large, it is possible to mix neodymium ions up to a concentration of about 1.3 atom%.

On the other hand, for example, LiSrAlF ₆ crystal, LiCaAlF ₆ crystal, or LiSrGaF ₆ crystal.
In the crystal, trivalent chromium ions can be mixed up to a high concentration of about 15 atom%.

In particular, when the present invention is constructed by using these crystals, the filament which is the excitation light source can usually be made thin with a diameter of about 2 mm or less. Therefore, when the excitation light is absorbed in these crystals, the excitation light is excited. It is desirable to allow most of the light to be absorbed where it penetrates about 2 mm. For that purpose, trivalent chromium ions may be mixed with these crystals in an amount of about 1.5 atomic% or more. In other words, 1.5 atom%
At that time, the attenuation distance of light having a wavelength of about 0.65 microns located in the absorption band of the crystal is about 2 mm.

Next, as a fourth embodiment of the present invention, a laser etching apparatus 400 using the solid-state laser apparatus 100 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of the laser etching apparatus 400.

In the laser etching apparatus 400 of this embodiment shown in the figure, the solid-state laser apparatus 10 of the present invention is used as a light source.
0, a mirror 402 that changes the direction of the continuous-wave laser light 401 extracted from the solid-state laser device 100 in the ultraviolet region, a lens 403 that narrows down the laser light 401 whose direction is changed by the mirror 402, and Lens 403
A reaction container 404 that houses a silicon substrate 407 that is subjected to etching processing by converging the laser light 401 focused by the above method is roughly configured.

Next, the operation will be described.

When the CW laser beam 401 in the ultraviolet region extracted from the solid-state laser device 100 is reflected downward by the mirror 402, the laser beam 401 enters the reaction container 404 through the window 405 while being focused through the lens 403. The incident laser light is condensed on the silicon substrate 407 which is the target of etching. The reaction vessel 404 is evacuated through an exhaust pipe 408, and chlorine gas as a raw material is injected through an injection pipe 409. The silicon substrate 407 is placed on the XY stage 406 in order to control the irradiation position of the laser light so as to have a spatial selectivity at a place where etching occurs.

In this laser etching apparatus 400, the laser light from the solid-state laser apparatus 100, which is a light source, has an output higher than that of the conventional HeCd laser by one digit or more.
The processing time can be shortened by about 1/10.

The solid-state laser device 100 employed in this embodiment has wavelength tunability because the final level of the laser in the laser medium is the vibrational level in the ground state. As a result, the wavelength of the laser beam can be adjusted to the wavelength of about 0.34 micron which is the peak value of the absorption spectrum of chlorine gas. As a result, the chlorine gas is efficiently decomposed, and the reactivity with respect to the silicon substrate can be dramatically increased, which is effective for the etching apparatus.

It is extremely effective to use a gas having an absorption spectrum peak as a raw material gas in the wavelength variable region of the solid-state laser device 100 in the range of about 0.3 to about 0.5 microns. In addition to chlorine gas, bromine gas whose center of absorption spectrum has a wavelength of about 0.4 microns is also suitable.

As described above, conventionally, in order to carry out etching with spatial selectivity, C which has a relatively high output in the visible region.
The argon ion laser, which is a W laser, was widely used, but its oscillation wavelength is 0.5145 microns, which is in the green region, and most of the gases that can be used as raw materials have very low absorptance at that wavelength. I will end up. as a result,
Although there is a problem that the raw material gas cannot be decomposed efficiently, such a problem does not occur in the laser etching apparatus of the present embodiment.

Next, as a fifth embodiment of the present invention, a laser marking device 500 using the solid-state laser device 100 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the laser marking device 500.

As shown in the figure, the laser marking apparatus 500 of the present embodiment is an apparatus for marking the photoresist plate 501, and it is continuous with the solid-state laser apparatus 100 in the ultraviolet region extracted from this solid-state laser apparatus 100. Mirrors 503a and 503b for scanning the wave laser beam 502, and the liquid crystal mask 504 on which the laser beam scanned by the mirrors 503a and 503b is irradiated and a pattern to be marked is formed
And a polarization beam splitter 505 that polarizes laser light that passes through the liquid crystal mask 504 and has a pattern to be marked formed thereon and transmits laser light that has no pattern to be marked formed thereon, and is polarized by the polarization beam splitter 505. And a photoresist plate 501 on which a predetermined pattern is marked with laser light.

Next, the operation will be described.

The CW laser beam 502 having a wavelength of about 0.4 micron extracted from the solid-state laser device 100 is reflected by mirrors 503a and 503b for scanning,
The liquid crystal mask 504 is irradiated. A pattern for marking the photoresist plate 501 is formed on the liquid crystal mask 504. The laser light passing through the pixels forming the pattern by the liquid crystal mask 504 is reflected by the polarization beam splitter 505, passes through the coupling lens 506, and forms a pattern image on the photoresist plate 501. Further, the laser light that does not form the pattern on the liquid crystal mask 504 passes through the polarization beam splitter 505 and strikes the light absorber 507.

A laser marking device using the liquid crystal mask 504 is generally called a liquid crystal marker, and a linearly polarized laser beam is used as a laser beam as a light source.

By the way, the photosensitivity of the photoresist plate 501 (meaning the property showing the absorptance with respect to the wavelength of irradiated light) is generally as shown in FIG.
It strongly absorbs light with a wavelength of 0.5 micron or less, especially in the ultraviolet range. Therefore, in order to mark the photoresist plate 501 at high speed, high-power laser light having a wavelength of 0.45 μm or less is required.

In this regard, generally, an excimer laser capable of performing a high-power laser operation in the ultraviolet region is not suitable as a light source for a liquid crystal mask for the following reason.

In the liquid crystal marker, it is desirable that the light from the light source is completely linearly polarized. However, the excimer laser generally has a short pulse width of several tens of nanoseconds, and the laser light does not reciprocate between the resonators. Therefore, since the light is taken out of the resonator while the polarization directions are not aligned, it is difficult to cause laser oscillation with linearly polarized light.

Furthermore, a laser having a wavelength of 0.35 μm or less like an excimer laser causes a problem in durability of a liquid crystal mask as described below.

The molecular structure of the liquid crystalline polymer constituting the liquid crystal mask is mainly carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O),
And nitrogen (N) and the like are combined. Among them, regarding C, H, and O, which are abundant in common liquid crystalline polymers, the binding energies between them and the wavelengths of photons having energies corresponding to those binding energies are shown in FIG. ..

As is apparent from FIG. 8, when the liquid crystal polymer is irradiated with light having a wavelength of 348 nm or less, its photon energy exceeds the binding energy between C, H, and O constituting the liquid crystal polymer. The probability of breaking the bond is high, which results in deterioration of the liquid crystal.

On the other hand, the solid-state laser device 100, which is the light source of the laser marking device 500 of this embodiment, has wavelength tunability over a wavelength range of about 0.35 micron to 0.5 micron. If the laser is operated between 35 and 0.45 micron, the liquid crystal mask 504 is not deteriorated and the absorptance of the photoresist plate 501 is not lowered. In particular, if the laser is operated near the wavelength of 0.4 micron, the photoresist plate 501
Since it corresponds to the maximum value of the absorptance with respect to, the photoresist plate 501 can be efficiently exposed to light.

Similarly, the wavelength is 0.35 micron to 0.4.
As a laser that oscillates between 5 microns, there is also a HeCd laser (which also oscillates at a wavelength of 0.441 microns),
Since the laser output is extremely small at about 0.1 W,
It is difficult to make a marking in a large area or in a short time.

On the other hand, the solid-state laser device 100, which is a light source, can obtain a laser output of about several W, and further, FIG.
As can be seen from the above, since the absorptance of the photoresist plate 501 can be about twice as high as that of the HeCd laser, it is possible to mark a large area of the photoresist plate 501 in a short time.

Furthermore, since the laser beam 502 extracted from the solid-state laser device 100 is wavelength-converted by the non-linear optical crystal as described above, it is also a perfect linearly polarized light that is a liquid crystal marker. Suitable as a light source.

Next, as a sixth embodiment, a blood component measuring device 800 for measuring a blood component of a living body using the solid-state laser device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram for explaining the configuration of the blood component measuring device 800.

Blood component measuring device 800 is roughly divided into
A laser device 801 for generating a laser beam in the near infrared region, a dark box 812 into which a part of a living body for measuring blood components is inserted, and a control device 814.

In the laser device 801, the laser medium 802
Cr: LiSrAlF ₆ is used as the material, and tungsten halogen lamps 803a, 80 are used as the excitation light source.
3B is used. The resonator is composed of a total reflection mirror 804 and an output mirror 805. A prism 806 for selecting an oscillation wavelength, an etalon 806 'for narrowing the oscillation wavelength width, and a Q switch 807 are provided between the resonators. And have been inserted.

When the laser device 801 is operated by a laser, the laser light 8 in the near infrared region having a wavelength of about 0.8 micron is obtained.
08a is extracted and reflected by the mirror 809, and the laser light 8
As in 08b, the light enters from the window 810 into the dark box 812.

In the dark box 812, a part of a living body such as a head or a hand is inserted from the direction of arrow 820, and the laser beam 808c which has passed through the part of the living body is a silicon photodiode (hereinafter referred to as Si-PD). ) 811 is detected.

The signal from the Si-PD 811 is transmitted to the control device 814 through the cable 813a. Further, the control device 814 is connected to the drive device 815 by the cable 813b, and the drive device 815 can finely move the total reflection mirror 804. As a result, the control device 814 can change the oscillation wavelength of the laser device 801.

In general, light having a wavelength of about 0.6 micron to about 1 micron penetrates deeply into blood (see FIG.
0 shows the light absorption characteristics of blood). Therefore, it is necessary to use laser light having a wavelength of about 0.6 micron to about 1 micron in order to transmit light over a long distance in blood such as in the hands and head. However, even if a laser beam of a certain wavelength is transmitted, the thickness of the hand or head varies from person to person, and the reflectance of the laser beam on the surface of the skin may depend on the color of the skin. Even if the attenuation rate of laser light is measured, it is difficult to obtain the absorption rate per unit length in blood.

On the other hand, in the blood component measuring apparatus 800 of this embodiment, the laser medium Cr: LiSrAlF is used.
_{Since 6} has wavelength tunability, by changing the wavelength of the laser beam 808a, the laser beam 808c that passes through the living body can be obtained.
It is possible to obtain the absorption characteristics for the wavelength of. According to this, the relationship between the transmission intensity of the laser light having a wavelength strongly absorbed in blood and the transmission intensity of the laser light having a wavelength other than that is clarified, so that the concentrations of components in blood can be accurately known. For example, laser light is absorbed by hemoglobin in blood, but the absorption rate of laser light differs depending on whether hemoglobin is attached with oxygen or not. Therefore, when the absorptance of laser light having a wavelength absorbed by hemoglobin and the absorptance of laser light having a wavelength not absorbed by hemoglobin are compared, the proportion of oxygen attached to hemoglobin becomes quantitatively clear.
As a result, the oxygen concentration in blood and the like are calculated.

Therefore, according to the above, the laser required for the blood component measuring device 800 of this embodiment has a wavelength of about 0.6.
Lasers with wavelength tunability between microns and about 1 micron will be suitable. For that purpose, for example, as a conventional laser device, a solid-state laser using a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions as a laser medium, such as a flash lamp-excited alexandrite laser, can be used. However, if they are used, the problems described below occur. Occurs.

In the flash lamp as the excitation light source,
Generally, the repetition rate is about 100 Hz or less, and the energy of one pulse is about 0.1 to 1 Joule. Therefore, for example, when sweeping the oscillation wavelength of about 100 nanometers at the time of measurement, if the wavelength width is set to about 1 Å and the oscillation wavelength is changed by 1 Å for each pulse, it takes about 10 seconds for the measurement. become. Therefore, it is difficult to stay still without moving the living body. Furthermore, since the energy of one pulse is relatively high, there is a risk of burns to the living body.

On the other hand, in the blood component measuring device 800 of the present embodiment, the laser device 801 is operated by the Q switch 807, so the repetition rate is approximately several kHz to several tens of kHz.
It is about two orders of magnitude higher than the case of Hz and flash lamps. As a result, even in the case of the same measurement as described above, it takes only about 0.1 second, and accurate measurement can be performed. Also, since the energy of one pulse is two orders of magnitude smaller, no burns occur.

Even if the energy of one pulse is small, the pulse width is several tens of nanoseconds, which is shorter by two digits or more. Therefore, the peak power is not lowered, and the laser light that passes through the living body and is attenuated is used.
The power of the 808c is not difficult to detect.

Furthermore, as described above, since it is possible to operate at a high repetition rate, a plurality of pulses can be made to correspond to one wavelength. For example, if 10 pulses correspond to one wavelength, the measured value can average fluctuations in peak power for each pulse, and the measurement accuracy is 1
It will be improved by an order of magnitude. Moreover, the measuring time is only 1 second in the above example. The reason for such measurement is that the pulse energy and peak power of the pulse laser generally have a fluctuation of about 3% for each pulse.

As described above, the blood component measuring apparatus 800 of the present invention can measure the oxygen concentration and the like in the blood of a living body in a short time, accurately, and without collecting blood. In addition, since it is possible to measure at high speed, computed tomography (generally called CT) has an enormous amount of measurement.
Can also be used for

Next, a laser annealing device 900 using the solid-state laser device 100 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the laser annealing apparatus 900.

This laser annealing apparatus 900 is a TFT
A device for improving the electrical characteristics of an a-Si (meaning amorphous silicon) film used in an LCD (meaning a thin film transistor) (meaning a liquid crystal display) of a solid-state laser device 100. , A mirror 90 for changing the optical path of a continuous wave laser beam 904 having a wavelength of about 0.35 micron extracted from the solid-state laser apparatus 100.
5 and laser light 90 whose optical path is changed by this mirror 905
4. A cylindrical lens 906 which is an optical system for linearly focusing 4 and an amorphous silicon (a-Si) film 908 where the laser light focused in one direction by the cylindrical lens 906 is linearly focused and annealed. And a substrate 901 on which is mounted.

Next, the operation will be described.

From the solid-state laser device 100, the wavelength is about 0.35.
The CW laser light 904 set to micron is extracted, reflected by a mirror 905, and then enters a cylindrical lens 906, which is a kind of optical system that collects light in a linear shape. The light is focused linearly on the a-Si film. This substrate 901 is a belt conveyor 90.
2 and the belt conveyor 902 is indicated by the arrow 90.
Since it is moving in the direction of 3, the portion 908 irradiated with the laser light 907 has a rectangular shape as shown in the figure. This portion 908 is annealed in the a-Si film. A concave mirror may be used as the optical system that collects light linearly.

Conventionally, an excimer laser or an argon ion laser has been used for such laser annealing.

The use of the excimer laser has the following problems.

About 1 cm for one pulse of excimer laser
Since an area of about an angle is annealed, in order to irradiate the entire area to be annealed, irradiation is performed while shifting a laser pulse of several tens of times. However, since the intensity of the laser light is low at the boundary between two adjacent portions to which the laser pulse is applied, the position is adjusted so that the laser light for two pulses is applied, but unevenness is likely to occur in annealing. At the boundary, the electrical characteristics could deteriorate.

When an argon ion laser is used, it can be operated in CW. Therefore, it is considered that the above-mentioned unevenness disappears when the substrate is scanned while irradiating laser light. However, there were actually the following problems.

The oscillation wavelength of the argon ion laser is 0.
Since it is in the visible range of 5145 microns, the absorptivity of the a-Si film is low. In this regard, a graph showing the light absorption characteristics of the a-Si film is shown in FIG. As can be seen from this graph, according to the absorption coefficient at the wavelength of 0.5145 μm, the absorption depth of the laser light is about 500 nm. However, a depth of about several tens of nm is sufficient for the actual annealing. As a result, the energy of the laser light is spread to an unnecessary depth, and a power of 10 to 50 times higher than the actually required laser power is required. Therefore, even if a high power type of several watts is used for the argon ion laser, in order to increase the laser power per unit area of the irradiated portion, the lens is focused to a small diameter of about several tens of microns to focus the light. Had to let. As a result, even if the substrate is scanned while irradiating with laser light, the irradiated part is only a thin band with a width of tens of microns, and it takes several tens to several hundreds to anneal all the necessary parts. The same problem as in the case of the excimer laser arises at the boundary of the band-shaped portion that needs to be scanned twice and is irradiated with laser light.

On the other hand, in the laser annealing apparatus 900 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, the absorption in the a-Si film is about 2 as compared with the case of the argon ion laser.
0 times stronger.

As a result, even with the same laser output, the area of the laser beam focused on the substrate can be made about 20 times wider. Even if the laser light is not condensed into a small spot by an ordinary lens but is condensed linearly by narrowing only one direction by the cylindrical lens 906, the laser power per unit area is not lowered so much. I'm done. As a result, the laser beam can be annealed uniformly in a width of several mm by one scan.

In addition, although the entire surface of the substrate cannot be annealed by one scan with a width of about several mm, even a portion of this width is used as a region for forming a peripheral drive circuit TFT for which particularly high electrical characteristics are required. Is sufficient, and thereby, the substrate of the LCD with the built-in peripheral drive circuit TFT is
It is now possible to manufacture with high reliability and in a short time.

Although various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the effects are summarized as follows.

First, the solid-state laser device of the present invention can generate CW laser light with a wavelength of about 0.5 micron or less with high output and high efficiency. In particular, regarding the output, it is possible to easily increase the output simply by using a long or large laser medium or excitation lamp. Further, in the solid-state laser device of the present invention, since the fundamental wave can be oscillated in the single mode, the wavelength-converted laser light can also be made in the single mode. As a result, when the extracted laser light is condensed by the lens, it can be condensed to an extremely small size of submicron. As a result, laser processing and semiconductor manufacturing can be performed at extremely high speed and high efficiency, and can be performed accurately and finely.

Further, when operated at a wavelength of about 0.4 micron, the laser light can be transmitted through a silica-based optical fiber, providing a highly flexible and easy-to-use device for medical use such as sterilization. be able to. Conventionally, only pulsed laser light such as excimer laser can be used as high-power laser light in the ultraviolet region. In that case, since the peak power becomes high, there was a problem that the incident end face was damaged when entering the fiber.
In the present invention, since it is CW, there is no such problem. Further, the solid-state laser device of the present invention has wavelength tunability as described above. Thereby, a CW wavelength tunable laser in the ultraviolet region can also be realized.

Regarding this, conventionally, there has been almost no high-power CW laser whose wavelength is variable in the ultraviolet region. If such a laser device is constructed by a conventional technique, a wavelength tunable laser such as a dye laser or a titanium sapphire laser that operates an argon ion laser, which is a CW laser with high output in the visible region, as an excitation light source It is possible to generate harmonics. However, since the efficiency of the argon ion laser is as low as 0.01% or less,
This is because there is a problem that even if a laser beam in the ultraviolet region of about W is obtained, the overall power consumption is about several tens of kW, which is extremely high.

In addition, the usual excitation lamp also contains light in the ultraviolet range, whereas the excitation light source used in the present invention is an incandescent lamp, so the emitted light has a wavelength above the visible range. As a result, damage to the reflection film of the lamp house, the laser medium, other coating films, etc., was extremely unlikely to occur. In particular, when a crystal that is a laser medium is irradiated with ultraviolet light, composition deterioration such as solarization may occur, but the present invention does not have that concern.

Further, it is considered that the filament is consumed as a factor of the life of the laser output to decrease, but the replacement of the filament is extremely easy and the cost is low. Furthermore, when a Q switch is inserted in the resonator of the solid-state laser of the present invention, pulse operation can be performed, whereby high repetition operation of several kHz to several tens kHz can be performed in the ultraviolet region. On the other hand, conventionally, an excimer laser is known as a pulse laser that operates with high output and high efficiency in the ultraviolet region, but this laser can usually be generated only at a repetition rate of about several hundred Hz. Therefore, the solid-state laser device of the present invention makes it possible to obtain laser light with high output and high efficiency at a high repetition rate of several kHz or higher in the ultraviolet region.

Further, in the present invention, a CW laser of high output in blue color can be realized. Therefore, the second harmonic of the conventionally used YAG laser is used for green, and the YAG laser is used for red. By using a dye laser or the like excited by the second harmonic of the above, laser light of three primary colors with high output and high efficiency can also be realized.

On the other hand, a HeCd laser was conventionally used as a CW laser capable of generating three primary colors, but the laser output is at most about several hundred mW and the efficiency is an ion laser. It was as low as less than%.

As the laser medium, Cr: LiSrA is used.
Using 1F ₆ or Cr: LiSrGaF ₆ etc., the wavelength is about 0.
If laser light is generated in the range of 45 to 0.5 micron, it can be used for undersea communication.

With respect to this, conventionally, a laser beam having a wavelength of 0.459 microns obtained by Raman-shifting a XeCl excimer laser has been used. However, as mentioned above,
In the excimer laser, the repetition rate is usually up to several hundreds Hz, so that it was not possible to communicate at a very high speed.

On the other hand, in the present invention, since the CW laser light or the laser light with a high repetition rate of about several kHz by the Q switch can be generated, the laser light can be modulated at high speed. As a result, it has become possible to transmit a large amount of data at high speed, which is orders of magnitude higher than in the past. In addition, since the solid-state laser device of the present invention also has wavelength tunability as described above, it is possible to accurately adjust the laser wavelength to a wavelength of about 0.48 micron, which is the least attenuated in the sea, and to transmit a long distance. You can also

Also, the solid-state laser device of the present invention can be applied to a technique for cooling atoms by laser light (this is generally called laser cooling of atoms).

Laser cooling of atoms requires CW laser light of variable wavelength and high output, which is matched to the frequency at which the atoms resonate.

On the other hand, since the solid-state laser device of the present invention has not only high output and high efficiency but also wavelength tunability, the laser light can be adjusted to the wavelength at which the atoms resonate, and can be used for laser cooling of the atoms. Available. As a result, it is possible to realize a compact atomic laser cooling device with low power consumption.

[0175]

According to the solid-state laser device of the present invention described above, a rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which is a laser medium, and an excitation applied to the rod to excite the rod. A light source that uses thermal radiation from a filament for light, and a solid-state laser device that includes a lamp house that houses the light source and a rod, is capable of oscillating electron transition using a vibration level in the ground state, and Since the solid-state laser device is composed of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, a light source utilizing thermal radiation by a filament, and a lamp house having at least a part of an elliptical shape, the vibration level in the ground state is In a crystal capable of utilizing oscillating electronic transitions, the final level of the laser is a vibrational level in the ground level composed of many vibrational levels. It made but, because they are located at a higher level than the energy level of the most due to the heat distribution at room temperature, 4
It can operate as a level laser. As a result, the threshold of population inversion becomes low, CW operation is easy, and a light source (hereinafter referred to as an incandescent light bulb) that uses heat radiation by a filament can emit light continuously in terms of time and wavelength. Has spectral characteristics centered on the near infrared region, but has a wavelength of about 1
A crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which contains visible light of a micron or less, but has an oscillation wavelength band in a wavelength of 1 micron or less,
Since the absorption band is included in the wavelength of 1 micron or less, it can be excited by this light source, so that CW laser light can be generated at a wavelength of 0.5 micron or less with high output and high efficiency.

Further, according to the present invention, the above-mentioned solid-state laser device, the mirror for changing the direction of the continuous-wave laser light in the ultraviolet region extracted from the solid-state laser device, and the laser light for which the direction is changed by the mirror are provided. A laser etching apparatus provided with a lens for squeezing and a reaction container accommodating a substrate to be processed by which laser light focused by the lens is condensed and etched, the solid-state laser apparatus, and a solid-state laser apparatus extracted from the solid-state laser apparatus. Mirror for scanning continuous wave laser light in the ultraviolet region, a liquid crystal mask irradiated with the laser light scanned by the mirror and having a pattern to be marked formed, and passing through the liquid crystal mask Polarized light that polarizes the laser light on which the pattern to be marked is formed and transmits laser light that does not form the pattern to be marked. Laser splitter including a beam splitter and a photoresist plate on which a predetermined pattern is marked with the laser light polarized by the polarization beam splitter, a laser generator for generating laser light in the near infrared region, and a blood component A part of the living body to be measured is inserted,
A dark box having a photodiode for detecting a blood component when the laser light from the laser generator that has passed through the living body hits, and a control device that receives a signal from the photodiode and changes the oscillation wavelength of the laser generator. A blood component measuring device provided, the above-mentioned solid-state laser device, a mirror for changing the optical path of continuous-wave laser light with a wavelength of about 0.35 micron extracted from the solid-state laser device, and the optical path changed by the mirror. And an optical system for condensing the laser light linearly, and a substrate on which a film to be processed on which the laser light focused in one direction by the optical system is linearly condensed and annealed is placed. Since this is a laser annealing device, the fundamental wave can be oscillated in a single mode, and the wavelength-converted laser light can also be made a single mode. That since the laser beam with the lens can when condensed very small condensing about submicron, very fast manufacturing of a laser processing or a semiconductor of said respective, and not only enables a high efficiency, enables high precision fine.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a solid-state laser device of the present invention.

2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 2 showing a second embodiment of the solid-state laser device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 2 showing a third embodiment of the solid-state laser device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a laser etching apparatus to which the solid-state laser device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a laser marking device to which the solid-state laser device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 7 is a characteristic diagram showing the photosensitivity of a photoresist plate.

FIG. 8 shows the binding energies of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) present in the liquid crystalline polymer constituting the liquid crystal mask, and the wavelengths of photons having energies corresponding to those binding energies. FIG.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a blood component measuring device to which the solid-state laser device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 is a characteristic diagram showing light absorption characteristics of blood.

FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a laser annealing device to which the solid-state laser device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 12 is a characteristic diagram showing light absorption characteristics of an a-Si film.

FIG. 13 is a characteristic diagram showing a spectral characteristic of a xenon arc lamp.

FIG. 14 is a characteristic diagram showing spectral characteristics of a mercury arc lamp.

FIG. 15 is a characteristic diagram showing a spectral characteristic of a krypton arc lamp.

FIG. 16: LiSrGaF ₆ containing trivalent chromium ions
It is a characteristic view showing the absorption characteristics of.

FIG. 17: LiSrAlF ₆ containing trivalent chromium ions
It is a characteristic view showing the absorption characteristics of.

FIG. 18: LiCaAlF ₆ containing trivalent chromium ions
It is a characteristic view showing the absorption characteristics of.

FIG. 19 is a characteristic diagram showing spectral characteristics of an incandescent light bulb.

FIG. 20 is a characteristic diagram showing spectral characteristics of light transmitted through a coating surface.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1,201 ... Rod, 2a, 2b, 803a, 803b
... Tungsten halogen lamp, 2a ', 2b', 20
2 ', 302a', 302b '... filament, 3a,
3b, 203 ... Cylindrical tube, 4, 4 ', 804 ... Total reflection mirror,
6 ... Dichroic mirror, 8 ... Non-linear optical crystal, 9,
401, 502, 808a, 808b, 808c, 90
4, 907 ... Laser light, 10, 806 ... Prism, 1
1,806 '... Etalon, 13 ... Cooling tube, 12, 204,
304a, 304b ... Lamphouse, 100, 200,
300 ... Solid-state laser device, 301, 802 ... Laser medium, 301 '... Central part, 202, 302a, 302b ...
Excitation lamps, 305a, 305b ... Arrows indicating water flow, 306
a, 306b ... Glass plate, 307a, 307b ... Stainless rod, 400 ... Laser etching device, 402, 50
3a, 503b, 809, 905 ... Mirror, 403 ... Lens, 404 ... Reaction container, 405, 810 ... Window, 406 ...
XY stage, 407 ... Substrate, 408 ... Exhaust pipe, 409
Injecting tube, 500 ... Laser marking device, 501 ... Photoresist plate, 504 ... Liquid crystal mask, 505 ... Polarizing beam splitter, 506 ... Coupling lens, 507 ... Optical absorber, 800 ... Blood component measuring device, 801 ... Laser device, 8
05 ... Output mirror, 807 ... Q switch, 811 ... Si-P
D, 812 ... dark box, 813a, 813b ... cable, 81
4 ... Control device, 815 ... Drive device, 820 ... Arrow indicating the insertion direction of living body, 900 ... Laser annealing device, 901
... Substrate, 902 ... Belt conveyor, 903 ... Arrow indicating the moving direction of the belt conveyor, 906 ... Cylindrical lens, 908 ... Laser light irradiation portion.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication location H01S 3/00 B 8934-4M 3/093 8934-4M 3/109 8934-4M (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Ogawa 4026 Kuji Town, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture

Claims (29)

[Claims] 1. A rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which is a laser medium, and for exciting the rod,
A solid-state laser device comprising: a light source that uses thermal radiation from a filament for excitation light with which the rod is irradiated; and a lamp house that houses the light source and the rod. 2. A rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which is a laser medium, and an excitation light for irradiating the rod to excite the rod. The rod is housed in a tungsten halogen lamp. A solid-state laser device comprising: a filament formed by the above method and a lamp house having an elliptical shape, at least a part of which accommodates the filament and the rod. 3. A rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which is a laser medium, and excitation light for irradiating the rod for exciting the rod is emitted, and a coating is applied to the outer peripheral surface. Characterized in that it is composed of a filament formed by being housed in a tungsten halogen lamp covered with a cylindrical tube, and at least a part of the lamp house accommodating the filament and the rod having an elliptical shape. Solid-state laser device. 4. The coating provided on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical tube has a high transmittance for a part of the wavelength band included in the absorption band of the crystal containing trivalent chromium ions. 4. The solid-state laser device according to claim 3, wherein the solid-state laser device has a high reflectance for at least a part of wavelength bands equal to or more than the wavelength band. 5. A rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions as a laser medium, emitting excitation light for irradiating the rod to excite the rod, and storing the rod in a tungsten halogen lamp. A filament to be formed, and a lamp house at least a part of which accommodates the filament and the rod have an elliptical shape, and the filament is arranged in the vicinity of one focus position in the elliptical lamp house, and the other one. A solid-state laser device in which the rod is arranged near a focal position. 6. The rod is a LiSrAlF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, a LiCaAlF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, or a LiSrGaF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions. The solid-state laser device according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 5. 7. A rod made of a crystal capable of vibrating electronic transition utilizing a vibrational level in a ground state and containing trivalent chromium ions, and excitation light irradiated to the rod is heated by a filament. A solid-state laser device comprising: a light source using radiation; and a lamp house in which at least a part of housing the light source and the rod is elliptical. 8. The solid-state laser device according to claim 7, wherein the size of the filament is a square root of 0.016 mm or less when the cavity length of the laser is L (mm). .. 9. The rod is a LiSrAlF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, a LiCaAlF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, or a LiSrGaF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions. The solid-state laser device according to claim 7. 10. The filament comprises tungsten or hafnium carbide.
The solid-state laser device according to 2, 3, 5, or 7. 11. A rod, which is a laser medium, made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, a filament that emits excitation light to the rod to excite the rod, and the filament and the rod. A lamp house to be housed, two total reflection mirrors provided at both ends of the device for repeatedly reflecting laser light oscillated when the rod is excited, and oscillated laser light provided on the optical axis of the laser light Between the dichroic mirror, which bends the laser beam approximately 90 ° and hits the one total reflection mirror, and transmits a part of the reflected laser beam to the outside of the resonator, and between the dichroic mirror and the total reflection mirror. A non-linear optical crystal that converts the wavelength of the laser light, a prism that selects the wavelength of the oscillating fundamental wave that is provided on the optical axis of the other total reflection mirror side, and Solid-state laser apparatus characterized by and a etalon for narrowing the wavelength width of the fundamental wave. 12. The dichroic mirror has a wavelength of 0.
99 for light from 7 microns to 1.0 microns
12. The solid-state laser device according to claim 11, wherein the solid-state laser device has a reflectance of not less than%, and a transmittance of not less than 90% with respect to light having a wavelength of 0.35 micron to 0.5 micron. .. 13. The rod is a LiSrAlF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, a LiCaAlF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, or a LiSrGaF ₆ crystal containing trivalent chromium ions. The solid-state laser device according to claim 11. 14. The solid-state laser device according to claim 11, wherein a β-BaB ₂ O ₄ crystal is used as the nonlinear optical crystal. 15. The solid-state laser device according to claim 11, wherein the filament is housed in a tungsten halogen lamp, and the tungsten halogen lamp is covered with a cylindrical tube whose outer peripheral surface is coated. .. 16. The coating provided on the outer peripheral side of the cylindrical tube has a transmittance of 98% or more for light having a wavelength of 0.6 μm to 0.75 μm, while
16. The solid-state laser device according to claim 15, which has a reflectance of 95% or more with respect to light having a wavelength of 0.8 to 3 microns. 17. The rod has a crystal of LiSrAl.
F ₆ , or LiCaAlF ₆ , or LiSrGaF
_6. This crystal is composed of ₆ and contains trivalent chromium ions in a concentration of 1.5% or more.
5. The solid-state laser device according to 5, 7, or 11. 18. A rod made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, which is a laser medium, and a pumping light for irradiating the rod for exciting the rod, wherein the outer peripheral surface is coated. A filament formed by being housed in a tungsten halogen lamp covered with a cylindrical tube, and a lamp house consisting of a combination of two parts, the inner surface of which accommodates these filaments and rods, the part having an elliptical shape. The lamp house is provided with two ellipses, one of which has substantially the same position, the rod is placed at that position, and the other of the focus positions is located near the other focus position. A solid-state laser device comprising a filament placed thereon. 19. A rod which is made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions as a laser medium and which is covered with a cylindrical tube whose outer peripheral surface is coated, and a rod for exciting the rod. While irradiating the irradiating excitation light, an excitation lamp made of a plurality of linear filaments made of tungsten, and a lamp house having an elliptical inner surface for accommodating the excitation lamp and the rod, the rod, A solid-state laser placed on the inner surface of the lamp house near one of the elliptical focal points, and the excitation lamp is placed on the inner surface of the lamp house near the other elliptical focal point. apparatus. 20. A thin plate-shaped laser medium made of a crystal containing trivalent chromium ions, and a pumping light for irradiating the thin plate-shaped laser medium for exciting the thin plate-shaped laser medium. , A tungsten-halogen lamp, and a filament containing a filament, and an inner surface for accommodating the filament, which is made up of two parts each having an elliptical shape, and a thin plate-shaped laser medium. A lamp house in which each of the elliptical shapes has two focal points, one of the focal points is located at substantially the same position, and the thin plate-shaped laser medium A solid-state laser device, comprising: a central portion, and the filaments respectively placed near the other focal position. 21. Claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 1
8, 19, or 20, the solid-state laser device, a mirror that changes the direction of the continuous-wave laser light in the ultraviolet region extracted from the solid-state laser device, and the laser light whose direction is changed by the mirror A laser etching apparatus comprising: a lens; and a reaction container that accommodates a substrate to be processed, which is subjected to an etching process by collecting a laser beam focused by the lens. 22. An exhaust pipe for evacuating the inside of the reaction container, an injection pipe for injecting a gas as a raw material into the reaction container, a laser beam for irradiating the substrate to be processed, which supports the substrate to be processed. 22. The laser etching apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising: an XY stage that controls the irradiation position of the laser beam to provide spatial selectivity at a location where etching occurs. 23. Claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 1
8, 19, or 20, a mirror for scanning a continuous-wave laser beam in the ultraviolet region extracted from the solid-state laser device, and a laser beam scanned by the mirror. And a liquid crystal mask on which a pattern to be marked is formed and a laser beam which passes through the liquid crystal mask and on which a pattern to be marked is formed is polarized, and a laser beam on which a pattern to be marked is not formed is transmitted. A laser marking device comprising: a beam splitter; and a photoresist plate on which a predetermined pattern is marked with a laser beam polarized by the polarization beam splitter. 24. The laser light, which has passed through the polarization beam splitter and has no pattern to be marked, not formed thereon, is applied to a light absorber to be absorbed.
3. The laser marking device according to item 3. 25. A laser generator for generating a laser beam in the near infrared region and a part of a living body for measuring a blood component are inserted,
A dark box having a photodiode for detecting a blood component when the laser light from the laser generator that has passed through the living body hits, and a controller for receiving the signal from the photodiode and changing the oscillation wavelength of the laser generator. A blood component measuring device characterized by being provided. 26. LiSrAl containing trivalent chromium ions
A laser medium made of F ₆ crystal, an excitation light source made of a tungsten halogen lamp for exciting the laser medium to generate laser light, a resonator made up of a total reflection mirror and an output mirror,
A laser generator including a prism for selecting an oscillation wavelength, an etalon for narrowing the oscillation wavelength width, and a Q switch, the prism being installed between the total reflection mirror and the output mirror;
One of a living body for measuring blood components and a mirror for changing the optical path by reflecting laser light in the near-infrared region around a wavelength of about 0.8 micron extracted through the output mirror by operating the laser generator. Part is inserted, and the optical path is changed by the mirror that has passed through the living body and the wavelength is about 0.
It is provided with a dark box having a photodiode for detecting a blood component hit by laser light in the near-infrared region around 8 microns, and a control device for receiving a signal from the photodiode and changing the oscillation wavelength of the laser generator. A blood component measuring device characterized by the above. 27. Claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 1
8, 19, or 20, a mirror for changing the optical path of a continuous-wave laser beam having a wavelength of about 0.35 micron extracted from the solid-state laser apparatus, and the optical path is changed by the mirror. An optical system for converging the focused laser light into a linear shape, and a substrate on which a film to be processed is annealed by linearly converging the laser light focused in one direction by the optical system. The laser annealing device is characterized in that 28. The optical system is a cylindrical lens,
28. The laser annealing apparatus according to claim 27, which is a concave mirror. 29. The laser annealing apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the film to be processed is an amorphous silicon film, and the substrate is supported by a transfer device so as to be transferable.