Orthorhombic YAlO 3 – a novel many‐phonon SRS‐active crystal

In single crystals of orthorhombic YAlO 3 , widely known as a host‐matrix for Ln 3+ ‐lasant ions, many‐phonon stimulated Raman scattering interactions as well as different manifestations of cascaded and cross‐cascaded nonlinear χ (3) ↔χ (3) processes are initiated by picosecond laser pulses. The scientific and applicative potential of YAlO 3 crystals is considerably expanded by the demonstration of its SRS properties. In particular, the studies revealed the manifestation of eight χ (3) ‐active vibrational modes. The corresponding Stokes and anti‐Stokes lines have been assigned and the steady‐state Raman gain coefficients related to the strongest phonon mode have been estimated. In addition, a short review presents the stimulated emission channels of its Ln 3+ ‐ions together with some χ (3) ‐nonlinear laser properties of crystals belonging to the binary Y 2 O 3 ‐Al 2 O 3 system.