Single-crystal aluminum-gallium oxide films have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy in the corundum phase. Films of the (Al(1-x)Ga(x))(2)O(3) alloys doped with neodymium have favorable properties for solid-state waveguide lasers, including a high-thermal-conductivity sapphire substrate and a dominant emission peak in the 1090-1096 nm wavelength range. The peak position is linearly correlated to the unit cell volume, which is dependent on film composition and stress. Varying the Ga-Al alloy composition during growth will enable the fabrication of graded-index layers for tunable lasing wavelengths and low scattering losses at the interfaces.
Epitaxial films of neodymium-doped sapphire have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on R-, A-, and M-plane sapphire substrates. The emission spectrum features sharp lines consistent with single-site doping of the Nd(3+) ion into the host crystal. This material is believed to be a nonequilibrium phase, inaccessible by conventional high-temperature growth methods. Neodymium-doped sapphire has a promising lasing line at 1096 nm with an emission cross section of 11.9x10(-19) cm(2), similar to the 1064 nm line of Nd:YVO(4).
High structural quality yttrium oxide films have been grown on R-plane sapphire by molecular beam epitaxy. X-ray diffraction measurements showed clear pendellösung fringes and sharp peaks. X-ray measurements indicate that the films grow nearly perfectly up to a critical thickness with x-ray peak widths as low as 7 arc sec. This critical thickness increases with decreasing growth rate up to 7 nm at 10 nm/h. The optimal growth temperature was found to be 800 °C. Evidence of short range (<10 nm) surface diffusion is presented.
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