Nonlinear refractive index of ceramic laser media and perspectives of their usage in a high-power laser-driver

✍ Scribed by Yu. Senatsky; A. Shirakawa; Y. Sato; J. Hagiwara; J. Lu; K. Ueda; H. Yagi; T. Yanagitani

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 156 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1612-2011
• DOI: 10.1002/lapl.200410108

✦ Synopsis

At the recent years a technology of ceramic laser media
on the base of crystals with a cubic symmetry has been developed.
The perspective of the usage of ceramic materials in many
different applications including high - power short pulse lasers
stimulates the work on the systematic study of the properties of
these new laser media. A nonlinear refractive index, n~2~ was
studied for several garnet and sesquioxide laser ceramics using
Z-scan method. n~2~ indices in the range of (2-6) × 10^-13^
were measured for YAG, Y~2~O~3~, Lu~2~O~3~, and Sc~2~O~3~
ceramic samples. These data together with the other laser and
spectroscopic parameters of several Nd^3+^ and Yb^3+^ doped
crystals of a cubic symmetry were used to estimate the properties
of laser ceramics for the application in a high-power
pulsed-repetitive laser - driver for inertial confinement fusion
(ICF) program. A high heat conductivity of ceramic materials is a
profitable characteristic for this application as compared to
glasses, which are used now for experiments in ICF at single shots
regime. Compared to single crystals, ceramic elements provide
laser designers with a variety of new design options for the
projects of laser-drivers.