Continuous-wave and Q-switched laser operation of the disordered Yb:Ca3(NbGa)2&#8722;xGa3O12 crystal

Junhai Liu; Wenjuan Han; Huaijin Zhang; Jiyang Wang; Valentin Petrov

doi:10.1117/12.808486

27 February 2009 Continuous-wave and Q-switched laser operation of the disordered Yb:Ca₃(NbGa)_2-xGa₃O₁₂ crystal

Junhai Liu, Wenjuan Han, Huaijin Zhang, Jiyang Wang, Valentin Petrov

Proceedings Volume 7193, Solid State Lasers XVIII: Technology and Devices; 71932J (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.808486
Event: SPIE LASE: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2009, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Disordered crystals combining the advantages of both crystals and glasses are very interesting for applications in tunable, Q-switched, and mode-locked solid-state lasers. Calcium niobium gallium garnet, Ca₃(NbGa)_2-xGa₃O₁₂ (CNGG), has a thermal conductivity of 4.7 Wm^-1K^-1 which is about 40% of that of undoped YAG and much higher than for glasses. It has a number of non-equivalent lattice sites to accommodate trivalent dopant ions, providing an effective mechanism for substantial inhomogeneous line broadening. For the Yb ion, owing to its intrinsic broad absorption and emission spectra, this line broadening effect is not so remarkable as for Nd or Tm but still the main emission band around 1028 nm of Yb:CNGG, with a FWHM of 21 nm is two times wider than the corresponding line (<10 nm) in Yb:YAG. Here, we report efficient laser operation achieved with Yb:CNGG at room temperature in cw as well as Q-switched regimes, revealing interesting characteristics of the laser oscillation. 2.0 W of cw output power were produced at an absorbed pump power of 6.32 W, leading to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 32% and a slope efficiency of 40%. The laser oscillation of the isotropic crystal was actually linearly polarized as a result of the stress-induced birefringence. Two orthogonal polarization states oscillated simultaneously at high pump power levels. Passive Q-switching by a Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber produced 1.35 W of average output power at 1033 nm at a pulse repetition rate of 16.7 kHz. The laser pulse energy, duration, and peak power were 81 μJ, 25 ns, and 3.24 kW, respectively.

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Junhai Liu, Wenjuan Han, Huaijin Zhang, Jiyang Wang, and Valentin Petrov "Continuous-wave and Q-switched laser operation of the disordered Yb:Ca₃(NbGa)_2-xGa₃O₁₂ crystal", Proc. SPIE 7193, Solid State Lasers XVIII: Technology and Devices, 71932J (27 February 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.808486

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KEYWORDS

Crystals

Laser crystals

Continuous wave operation

Polarization

Q switched lasers

Absorption

Glasses

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