Fluorescence line-narrowing studies of Nd:glass laser materials

The increasing importance of Nd glass lasers in laser fusion technology has emphasized the inadequacy in the understanding of the optical properties of rare earth ions in glasses. Indeed, it has been difficult to generate models for the performance of these devices, and the selection of host glasses could be done by little more than a trial-and-error approach. The technique of laser-induced fluorescence line-narrowing developed within the last few years provides a new and powerful tool for the study of these systems. In this technique, a laser excites within the inhomogeneously broadened absorption bands a selected subgroup of the ions in the system, namely those whose absorption energy is resonant with the laser. If the excitation does not migrate among the entire collection of ions prior to fluorescence, the fluorescence that is observed is only from the group that was excited and is narrowed. This permits the selective study of classes of ion sites within the ensemble. The concept is indicated schematically. By the use of a tunable laser, such as a dye laser, it is possible to vary the class of sites, defined by energy, that is excited and thereby study the important spectroscopic properties and their variations, unclouded by the averaging that occurs under excitation of the entire system. Furthermore, it is then possible to use the spectroscopic information to infer a description of the variation of the microscopic environment, and a rationalization of the effects of compositional changes. Use of a pulsed dye laser and time-resolved detection permits the study of the dynamics, including, for example, the energy transfer among ions of different energies within the inhomogeneously-broadened spectrum. The goal of this project has been to apply such studies to glasses of interest to glass laser technology, providing information for device modeling, and establishing design criteria for glass selection. (auth