Crystal growth and properties of the disordered crystal Yb:SrLaAlO4: A promising candidate for high-power ultrashort pulse lasers

Identifier:  imarina:3996505

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina3996505

Authors:  Pan, ZB; Dai, XJ; Lei, YH; Cai, HQ; Serres, JM; Aguiló, M; Díaz, F; Ma, J; Tang, DY; Vilejshikova, E; Griebner, U; Petrov, V; Loiko, P; Mateos, X

Abstract:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018. A high quality Yb3+-doped strontium lanthanum aluminate crystal, Yb:SrLaAlO4(Yb:SLA) is grown by the Czochralski method. It is tetragonal (sp. gr. I4/mmm, a = b = 3.7536 Å, c = 12.6253 Å). Room- and low-temperature spectroscopy of Yb3+ions in this crystal are studied. The Stark splitting is resolved. Absorption, stimulated-emission (SE) and gain cross-sections are determined with polarized light. In the spectral range of laser emission, the maximum σSEis 0.57 × 10-20cm2at 1047 nm for σ polarization. The polarized Raman spectra of Yb:SLA are presented. Thermal properties of Yb:SLA are characterized in terms of the linear thermal expansion, specific heat and thermal conductivity. The latter is as high as 6.06 and 4.30 W m-1K-1along the a- and c-axes, respectively (at room temperature). Broadband tuning of a continuous-wave (CW) Yb:SLA laser, from 1011 to 1082 nm has been achieved. Due to its good thermal properties, broad and smooth gain spectra, Yb:LSA is a promising material for power-scalable, broadly tunable CW and sub-100 fs mode-locked lasers at ∼1 μm.