Hairui Xia

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:LuVO 4 laser at 1.34μm with a V 3+ :YAG saturable absorber

We report a diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:LuVO4 laser at 1.34μm using V3+:YAG as saturable absorber. The characteristics of a-cut and c-cut Nd:LuVO4 passive Q-switching operation were studied. The average output power of 1.02W was obtained under the pump power of 12.88W, corresponding to the optical conversion efficiency of 8% and slope efficiency of 10% in c-cut Nd:LuVO4 laser. The maximum pulse energy of 17.6μJ and the highest peak power of 820W were obtained at pulse width of 21ns and pulse repetition rate of 22.4kHz in a-cut Nd:LuVO4 laser.

Growth and characterization of Nd:Y x Gd 1−x VO 4 series laser crystals

A series of Nd:YxGd1−xVO4 (x=0.17, 0.37, 0.53, 0.63, 0.70, 0.81) mixed laser crystals with doping concentration of 0.5 at.% Nd were successfully grown by the Czochralski method. Thermal properties including the specific heat, thermal diffusion coefficient, and the thermal conductivity were systematically studied. The material constants Ms were calculated and show that the thermal fracture limit of the mixed crystals should be comparable with that of Nd:YVO4. Diode-pumped continuous-wave (CW) laser performance at 1.34 μm and 1.06 μm with a- and c-cut crystals was demonstrated. The influence of different x values on laser performance and emission cross sections was also discussed. All the results show that Nd:YxGd1−xVO4 represents a new series of crystals suitable for application as high-power diode-pumped lasers.

Lattice vibration and absorbance of Er:Yb:YCOB single crystals

Abstract Er 3+ - and Yb 3+ -doped yttrium calcium oxoborate Er:Yb:YCa 4 O(BO 3 ) 3 (Er:Yb:YCOB) crystallizes with a fluorapatite-type structure in the monoclinic system. Its lattice vibrational modes were calculated by using space group theory, and Raman spectra were measured at room temperature with different scattering geometry projects. The experiments show that the characteristic lattice vibrational modes of Er:Yb:YCOB crystal arise mainly from the internal vibrations of the BO 3 , CaO 6 , and YO 6 groups. The three-dimensional network structure of Er:Yb:YCOB crystal is identified, and its excellent nonlinear optical (NLO) properties are mainly attributed to the BO 3 clusters that connects all the distorted YO 6 and CaO 6 octahedral clusters together. The combination of the strong absorption at 976 nm and the strong emission at 1537 nm makes this material very promising for use in an infrared laser system.