Feiyun Guo

A study on the growth of Yb:YVO4 single crystal

Abstract The Yb:YVO 4 crystals with various dopant concentrations of Yb 3+ were grown using the Czochraski method. The preparation technique of polycrystalline materials, changes in the lattice parameters with various dopant concentrations of Yb 3+ , laser damage threshold values, growth protective atmosphere, as well as the influence of slight amount of water vapor on the crystallization are described.

Growth, Faraday and inverse Faraday characteristics of Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7 crystal

Tb2Ti2O7 (TTO) single crystal with dimensions of 20 × 20 × 16 mm3 was grown by the Czochralski method. Rietveld structure refinement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) data confirms that the compound crystallizes in the cubic system with pyrochlore structure. Transmission spectra, Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra, Faraday and inverse Faraday characteristics of TTO crystal have been measured and analyzed in detail. The results demonstrate that TTO crystal has high transmittance at 700-1400 nm waveband and a larger Verdat constant than that of TGG reported. Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra showed that the 4f→4f transitions of Tb3+ have significant contributions to the magneto-optical activity (MOA). In the time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy, the rotation signals of the probe beam based on the inverse Faraday effect in magneto-optical crystal were observed at zero time delay, the full width at half maximum of the rotation and ellipticity signals can be as fast as ~500 fs, which indicates that TTO crystal can be a promising material for ultrafast all-optical magnetic switching.

Crystal growth, spectroscopic characterization and laser performance of Nd:Lu0.33Y0.36Gd0.3VO4 crystal

A new three-matrix mixed vanadate crystal Nd:Lu0.33Y0.36Gd0.3VO4 (Nd:LuYGdVO4) crystal was grown by the Czochralski method. Room temperature absorption and fluorescence spectra of the Nd:LuYGdVO4 crystals were measured and the spectroscopic parameters were calculated by the Judd-Ofelt theory. The intensity parameters of the Nd:LuYGdVO4 crystal were Ω2 = 9.736 × 10−20 cm2, Ω4 = 4.179 × 10−20 cm2, Ω6 = 8.020 × 10−20 cm2 and the stimulate emission cross section was 5.3 × 10−19 cm2. Diodepumped actively Q-switched and passively Q-switched Nd:LuYGdVO4 and Nd:Lu0.14Y0.86VO4 lasers at 1.06 μm were demonstrated. The results indicate that, for both actively and passively Q-switched lasers, the Nd:LuYGdVO4 lasers can generate shorter pulse width with higher peak power than the Nd:Lu0.14Y0.86VO4 lasers at the same cavity conditions.