First-principles calculations of electronic and optical properties of LiCaAlF 6 and LiSrAlF 6 crystals as VUV to UV solid-state laser materials

Luong, Mui Viet; Empizo, Melvin John F.; Cadatal-Raduban, Marilou; Arita, Ren; Minami, Yuki; Shimizu, Toshihiko; Sarukura, Nobuhiko; Azechi, H.; Pham, Minh Hong; Nguyen, Hung Ngoc; Kawazoe, Yoshiyuki; Schwerdtferger, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.optmat.2016.09.062

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…If the conduction band minimum of the host is close to the 5d excited state level of the activator ion, then ESA will be greater in this laser material. Similar band structure and DOS calculations performed for LiSAF reveal that the band gap energy of LiSAF is 11.79 eV, which is 0.44 eV smaller than LiCAF [62]. Associated with the strong ESA is color center formation or solarization, which happens due to an electron getting trapped at impurities in the conduction band of the host as shown in Figure 6 [27].…”

Section: Numerical Simulation Of the Electronic Properties Of The Licmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Ultrashort Pulse Generation in Ce:LiCAF Ultraviolet Laser http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73501 energies of the LiCAF crystal. These calculations employed the projector-augmented wave (PAW) method as implemented within the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package (VASP) [52][53][54][55][56][57], with a plane-wave basis cutoff of 500 eV and a hybrid density functional, which uses the full Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) [58,59] correlation energy but mixes 65% PBE exchange with 35% exact exchange [60][61][62][63]. The initial charge density and wave function was generated using a 3 Â 3 Â 1 Monkhorst-Pack k-point grid.…”

Section: Numerical Simulation Of the Electronic Properties Of The Licmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ultrashort Pulse Generation in Ce:LiCAF Ultraviolet Laser

Cadatal-Raduban¹,

Pham²,

Luong³

et al. 2018

Numerical Simulations in Engineering and Science

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Transient cavity method used to generate ultrashort laser pulses in dye lasers is extended to a solid-state gain medium. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the spectro-temporal evolution of broadband ultraviolet (UV) laser emission from Ce 3+-doped LiCaAlF 6 (Ce:LiCAF), which is represented as a system of two homogeneous broadened singlet states. By solving the rate equations extended to multiple wavelengths, the appropriate cavity length and Q-factor for optimal photon cavity decay time and pumping energy that will generate resonator transients is determined. Formation of resonator transients could generate picosecond UV laser pulses from a Ce:LiCAF crystal pumped by the fourth harmonics (266 nm) of a Nd:YAG laser. Numerical simulations indicate that a 1-mol% Ce 3+-doped LiCAF crystal that is 1-mm long can generate a single picosecond pulse. This is accomplished by using a low Q (output coupler reflectivity of 10%), short cavity (cavity length of 2 mm) laser oscillator. Ultrashort pulses can also be generated using other rare earth-doped fluoride laser materials using this technique.

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Section: Numerical Simulation Of the Electronic Properties Of The Licmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Numerical Simulation Of the Electronic Properties Of The Licmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrashort Pulse Generation in Ce:LiCAF Ultraviolet Laser

Cadatal-Raduban¹,

Pham²,

Luong³

et al. 2018

Numerical Simulations in Engineering and Science

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“…The respective spectra of the input pulses are depicted by dashed curves. λ p = 1030 nm λ p = 800 nm λ p = 400 nm λ p = 515 nm crystal, which has very similar optical characteristics as LiSAF, and exhibits a slightly larger energy bandgap (12.23 eV [25]) and somewhat better transparency in the UV, with a short-wavelength absorption edge at 112 nm [26]. Figure 4 presents the SC spectra generated in the 5 mm-long LiCAF sample (Optogama) using the pump beams with parameters listed in Table 1.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter application indirectly suggests that the LiSAF crystal itself is highly resistable to intense UV irradiation. In addition to that, LiSAF exhibits an excellent set of optical properties: a very large energy bandgap of 11.79 eV [25], a shortwavelength absorption edge at 116 nm [26], a low refractive index and so a low chromatic dispersion throughout the UV, visible and near IR, that qualify this crystal as a potentially attractive material for SC generation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

LiSAF: an efficient and durable nonlinear material for supercontinuum generation in the ultraviolet

Šuminienė¹,

Jukna²,

Šuminas³

et al. 2020

Lith. J. Phys.

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We have experimentally studied supercontinuum generation in an undoped LiSAF crystal using ultraviolet, visible and near infrared pump pulses provided by fundamental and second harmonics of ampliﬁed femtosecond Ti:sapphire and Yb:KGW lasers. We have found that the optical degradation of the crystal, manifested by gradual narrowing of the supercontinuum spectrum, starts much faster using infrared pump pulses. This is attributed to the role of impact ionization, which increases with increasing the pump wavelength. The most reliable operation is achieved with the shortest pump wavelength of 400 nm (the second harmonic of a Ti:sapphire laser), where LiSAF produces a stable, almost 1.3 octave-spanning supercontinuum spectrum with a short-wavelength cut-oﬀ at 252 nm and shows no apparent optical degradation for one hour of continuous operation at 500 Hz repetition rate without crystal translation.

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“…Ce:LiCAF also has a large saturation fluence and damage threshold, making it attractive for designing power amplifiers [13,14]. Most importantly, color center formation or solarization was not observed from Ce:LiCAF, giving it the edge over Ce:LiSAF, which exhibits a lower laser efficiency due to excited state absorption and color center formation [12,15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Short Pulse Broadband and Narrow Linewidth Ultraviolet Laser Using Ce:LiCAF Crystal

Duong¹,

Tu²,

Diep³

et al. 2019

Comm. in Phys.

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We report the successful development of an all-solid state laser based on a Czochralski method-grown cerium-doped lithium calcium aluminum fluoride (Ce3+:LiCaAlF6 or Ce:LiCAF) crystal as the gain medium. Results for the broadband, narrow linewidth and short pulse laser emission are obtained by pumping the crystal with 7 ns pulses from the fourth harmonics (266 nm) of a Nd:YAG laser operating at 10 Hz. The effects of output coupler reflectivity, resonator length and pump energy on the laser pulse duration were explored. With broadband configuration, a maximum output pulse energy of 3.4 mJ and a slope efficiency of about 33% were achieved. By optimizing the parameters of the resonator and pump laser energy, 450 ps UV laser pulses were generated from resonator transient conditions of low-Q and short resonator under a near threshold pump energy. With narrow linewidth configuration, where the end mirror is replaced by a grating, tunability from 281 nm to 299 nm is also achieved with a linewidth of about 0.2 nm.

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First-principles calculations of electronic and optical properties of LiCaAlF 6 and LiSrAlF 6 crystals as VUV to UV solid-state laser materials

Cited by 20 publications

References 32 publications

Ultrashort Pulse Generation in Ce:LiCAF Ultraviolet Laser

Ultrashort Pulse Generation in Ce:LiCAF Ultraviolet Laser

LiSAF: an efficient and durable nonlinear material for supercontinuum generation in the ultraviolet

Development of a Short Pulse Broadband and Narrow Linewidth Ultraviolet Laser Using Ce:LiCAF Crystal

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