“…Today, mid-infrared (mid-IR) lasers have already become a research hotspot in many related fields, [1] especially those whose wavelength lie in the so-called "atmospheric transport window" wavelength bands (3-5 μm, 8-12 μm), where lasers have further effective distance in the atmosphere. [2] Compared with other ways to obtain mid-infrared lasers, such as gas lasers, chemical lasers, semiconductor quantum well cascade lasers, and nonlinear frequency conversion device, [3][4][5][6] ion-doped solid-state lasers could directly output lasers from solid media, which is thought to be a simpler method. [7] To obtain mid-IR lasers, the active media of the solid-state lasers needs to be with low-phonon energy, because limited electron-phonon coupling and multi-phonon decay processes in these materials could significantly inhibit rapid DOI: 10.1002/crat.202200266 non-radiative decay between closely spaced laser ion energy levels due to lattice vibrations.…”