Bulk crystal growth and efficient diode-pumped laser performance of Yb3+:Sc2SiO5

Abstract

A bulk crystal of Yb:Sc 2 SiO 5 (Yb:SSO) with favorable thermal properties was successfully obtained by the Czochralski method. The energy level diagrams for Yb:SSO crystal were determined by optical spectroscopic analysis and semi-empirical crystal-field calculations using the simple overlap model. The full width at half maximum of the absorption band centering at 976 nm was calculated to be 24 nm with a peak absorption cross-section of 9. Table 1.As indicated in Table 1, Sc 2 SiO 5 crystal with characterizations of high thermal conductivity and negative refractive index is an excellent laser host [6]. However, the growth of Yb:Sc 2 SiO 5 single crystal with a large size is rather difficult mainly due to crystal diameter controlling [7,8]. Ivanov reported a transparent crystal slice with a diameter of 4 mm grown by the Czochralski method [9]. Furthermore, no laser action was reported on Yb:Sc 2 SiO 5 until now.In this letter, we report on the growth of 5 at. % Yb: Sc 2 SiO 5 with a large size of 25 mm in diameter, by imu Fax: +86-21-69987109, E-mail: xujun@mail.shcnc.ac.cn proving the growth conditions. The laser performances under diode-pumping are also presented. The segregation coefficient of Yb 3+ ion was detected by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Crystal structure was identified by X-ray diffractometry (Cu target, K α , X-pert, Hollland). The unpolarized absorption spectrum was measured with a UV/Vis/NIR spectrophotometer (Model V-570, JASCO) using Xe light as the pump source. The fluorescence spectrum was measured with a 940 nm pumping source (Jobin-Yvon TRIAX 550 spectrophotometer). A fluorescence lifetime measurement was carried out by a computer-controlled transient digitizer decay curve of emission. All measurements were performed at room temperature.

Growth and Characterization of Ytterbium Doped Silicate Crystals for Ultra-Fast Laser Applications

“…Self-pulsed Yb:GSO lasers were achieved with low pumping threshold from 1091nm to 1105 nm . Efficient diode-pumped laser performance of Yb:SSO was demonstrated with slope efficiency of 45% and output power of 3.55W (Zheng et al, 2008). The passive mode-locking and cw lasing performance of Yb:SSO was carried out in an x-fold cavity end-pumped by a 978 nm single emitter.…”

Optical study of single crystals grown by the Czochralski method from Yb3+-doped (Gd1−x Y x )2SiO5 solid solution

“…Considerable attention has also been paid to oxyorthosilicates Yb:Lu 2 SiO 5 (LSO), Yb:Y 2 SiO 5 (YSO), Yb:Gd 2 SiO 5 (GSO) and Yb:Sc 2 SiO 5 (SSO) [10][11][12][13]. It has been ascertained that single oxyorthosilicate crystals possess good optical and mechanical properties.…”

High-power and wavelength tunable diode-pumped continuous wave Yb:SSO laser

“…Compared with other Yb 3+ -doped materials, Yb:SSO exhibits good thermal conductivity (7.5 W·m −1 ·K −1 ), relatively high emission cross-sections (7.4×10 −21 cm 2 ), and broad gain bandwidths (54 nm) [12] , indicating its potential use for the development of tunable and high average power CW lasers. However, previous studies on Yb:SSO crystal have concentrated on the mode-locked regime and only few reports have referred to CW operation.…”

“…However, previous studies on Yb:SSO crystal have concentrated on the mode-locked regime and only few reports have referred to CW operation. Zheng et al demonstrated a CW Yb:SSO laser with maximum output power of 3.55 W and slope efficiencies of 45% and 44.5%, respectively [12,13] . Tan et al demonstrated a CW Yb:SSO laser with a maximum output power of 2.73 W and a slope efficiency of 70% [14] .…”