Spectroscopic and lasing studies of Ce3+:Er3+:Yb3+:YVO4 crystals

✍ Scribed by Y.H. Tsang; D.J. Binks; B.D.O. Richards; A. Jha

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 188 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1612-2011
• DOI: 10.1002/lapl.201110056

✦ Synopsis

Absorption and fluorescence spectra and fluorescence lifetime measurements are presented for Ce 3+ :Er 3+ :Yb 3+ :YVO 4 crystals and compared to the corresponding data for Er 3+ :Yb 3+ :YVO 4 crystals. These results show that doping with Ce 3+ ions reduces the lifetime of the 4 I 11/2 state of Er 3+ and thereby both suppresses upconversion from this state and improves the energy transfer efficiency from Yb 3+ to Er 3+ . Lasing from this material is also demonstrated for this first time, both in quasi-continuous wave (QCW) and Q-switched modes. To obtain laser action at ∼ 1.5 μm, the Ce 3+ :Er 3+ :Yb 3+ :YVO 4 crystals were pumped by laser diodes operating at ∼ 0.98 μm. For QCW operation, a slope efficiency of 2.6% and a threshold of 12 W were obtained. Q-switched pulses of 27 μJ energy and 52 μs pulse to pulse duration were also measured. Total output pulses energy, mJ 6 5 4 3 2 1 0