Performances of a diode end-pumped GYSGG/Er,Pr:GYSGG composite laser crystal operated at 279 μm

Abstract

We demonstrate a comparative investigation on Er,Pr:GYSGG and GYSGG/Er,Pr:GYSGG composite crystals at 2.79 μm. Simulating results show the highest temperatures are 369 K and 318 K, respectively. A maximum output power of 825 mW with slope efficiency of 19.2% and maximum laser energy of 3.65 mJ with slope efficiency of 22.7% are obtained in the GYSGG/Er,Pr:GYSGG composite crystal, which have an obvious improvement than those of Er,Pr:GYSGG crystal. The thermal focal lengths are respectively 41 and 62 mm when the pump power is 2.5 W. All these results indicate that the GYSGG/Er,Pr:GYSGG composite crystal has great advantages in reducing the influence of thermal effects and improving laser performances.

Growth, structure, and spectroscopic properties of a Cr3+, Tm3+, Ho3+, and Pr3+co-doped LuYAG single crystal for 2.9 μm laser

“…At present, the 2.7-3 μm rare-earth laser crystals have been widely investigated, and various laser crystals with excellent performances have realized laser output in this spectral region, such as Er:YAG (2.94 μm) [6], Er,Pr:GYSGG (2.79 μm) [7,8], Cr,Yb,Ho:YSGG (2.842 μm, 2.888 μm, 2.926 μm, 2.962 μm, 2.973 μm, 3.057 μm) [9], and Ho:YAP (2.844 μm, 2.855 μm, 2.856 μm, 2.920 μm, 3.017 μm) [10] crystals, et al Although the 2.7-3 μm wavelength range is a vibrational absorption band of water, there also exist fine spectral wavebands which have only very weak water absorption, especially at the wavelength of 2.911 μm. Hence, the 2.911 μm laser has a characteristic of low water absorption loss when it transmits through the ground of containing water vapor, which can be applied in the fields of military, detection, and scientific research.…”

Dual function of Nd^3+ in Nd,Er:LuYSGG crystal for LD pumped ~30 μm mid-infrared laser

“…In recent years, solid state lasers operating around ~3.0 μm based on the 4 I 11/2 → 4 I 13/2 transition of Er 3+ have attracted much attention, due to their wide utilization in many fields, such as laser surgery, dentistry, remote sensing etc [1][2][3]. Moreover, ~3.0 μm laser is also attractive as a pump source for a far-infrared waveband optical parametric oscillation (OPO) or optical parametric generation (OPG) laser system, which have broad applications in spectroscopy, radar, atmospheric detection and defense etc [4,5].…”

“…These ions can decrease the lower-level populations effectively, and thus lower ~3.0 µm laser threshold and increase laser output power. Therefore, interests in studying the spectroscopy of the depopulation ions co-doped, Er 3+ -activated laser crystals and ~3.0 µm solid-state lasers have increased recently [2,3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Among all the rare earth ions, Nd 3+ is the only one able to act as sensitization and depopulation ions simultaneously, therefore, we chose Nd 3+ as the codopant ions in Er 3+ activated bulk laser crystal in this work.…”

“…To date, most of the researches of erbium ~3.0 µm lasers have focused on garnet crystal hosts due to their outstanding physicochemical, optical and laser properties [2,3,6,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], such as Y 3 Al 5 O 12 (YAG), Gd 3 Ga 5 O 12 (GGG), Y 3 Sc 2 Ga 3 O 12 (YSGG), GSGG (Gd 3 Sc 2 Ga 3 O 12 ) etc., among which Er:YSGG/YSGG composite crystal has achieved the highest laser output power and efficiency [15]. YSGG crystal belongs to cubic system and Ia3d space group, with the same garnet structure as famous and commercial YAG crystal.…”

Single-longitudinal-mode Er:GGG microchip laser operating at 27 μm

“…In comparison, Er-doped crystalline oxides, such as Er:YAG, Er:YSGG, and Er:GGG, generally have high thermal conductivities (about 7-14 W∕mK) that are believed to be more suitable for generating high-power mid-infrared lasers. In recent years, the mid-infrared lasers with Er:YAG, Er:YSGG, and Er:GGG have been actively demonstrated [10,11]. The transitions of the upper laser level to the lower laser level span five or six maximum phonon energies in the above crystalline oxides, whereas their laser upper-level lifetimes are shorter than that of the lower level.…”