Abstract
Various tunable ultraviolet lasers based on Ce-doped fluorides have been appeared recently.They have the vast possibilities as a new category of ultraviolet light sources, like Ti: sapphirelasers in infrared region. In this paper, we will review progresses in these laser materials.Here, we will also introduce our activities for the ultrafast laser application of these materialsincluding picosecond-pulse amplification using Ce: LuLiF4 (LLF) and Ce: LiCaAlF6 (LiCAF), and direct generation of short-pulse trains from Ce: LLF and Ce: LiCAF lasers using a newlyproposed, passive self-injection-seeding scheme.
