Laser floating zone growth of Yb, or Nd, doped (Lu_0.3Gd_0.7)₂SiO₅ oxyorthosilicate single-crystal rods with efficient laser performance

Abstract

Laser quality single crystals of Yb- and Nd-doped oxyorthosilicates, (Lu0.3Gd0.7)2SiO5, have been grown by the laser floating zone technique.

Non-resonant power-efficient directional Nd:YAG ceramic laser using a scattering cavity

“…During the fabrication of a single-crystal gain medium, the growth of defect-free and highly transparent single crystals from the melt is generally a challenging task. Low thermal conductivity and undesired inhomogeneity resulting from segregation of the incorporated dopants can also negatively affect the lasing oscillation 45 , 46 . For polycrystalline ceramics, many scattering elements, including residual pores, second phases, and grain boundaries, are located in the microstructure, whereby the gain medium becomes translucent or opaque 47 .…”

Crystal Growth of the R2SiO5 Compounds (R = Dy, Ho, and Er) by the Floating Zone Method Using a Laser-Diode-Heated Furnace

“…Other related compounds, R 2 Si 2 O 7 , have been previously grown using optical FZ furnaces, however, the boules tended to have a high number of thermally generated cracks, and single grains isolated from the crystal boules were of relatively small sizes [54,55]. Previous studies [31,[56][57][58][59][60][61] have demonstrated the feasibility of the FZ technique using a laser floating zone furnace for preparing single crystals of relatively large size of members of the rare earth monosilicate family, Gd 2 SiO 5 , Nd x Gd 2−x SiO 5 and Lu x Gd 2−x SiO 5 (pure and Nd or Yb doped).…”

“…The X1-R 2 SiO 5 polymorphs have a monoclinic (P2 1 /c) crystal structure that is comprised of three different cation sites, and five anion sites. The larger trivalent rare earth R 3+ ions occupy a nine-fold and a seven-fold oxygen coordinated sites, whereas the smaller tetravalent Si 4+ ion sit at the centre of tetra-fold coordinates sites [31]. The X2-R 2 SiO 5 polymrophs crystallize in a monoclinic (given in the literature as the different settings B2/b, C2/c and I2/a) crystal structure, containing the same number of cation and anion sites as the X1-type structure.…”

Elaboration and Luminescence Properties of Laser-Heated Pedestal Growth Sr3Al2O6-Based Fibers

“…The LHPG technique has been employed to prepare several single-crystal or polycrystalline optical fibers based on binary, ternary, or even quaternary compounds. − Among them, aluminate based-compositions such as YAG or sapphire have proven high optical efficiency and are attractive for optical applications. − , Nevertheless, even when the usefulness of the LHPG technique has been proved, it has been scarcely explored so far. The main compositional requirement is the existence of congruent crystallization from the molten state.…”