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Effects of Neodymium Concentration on Optical Characteristics of Polycrystalline Nd:YAG Laser Materials
Author(s) -
Ikesue Akio,
Kamata Kiichiro,
Yoshida Kunio
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1996.tb08014.x
Subject(s) - neodymium , materials science , ceramic , lasing threshold , laser , yttrium , nd:yag laser , transparent ceramics , slope efficiency , crystal (programming language) , single crystal , yttrium aluminium garnet , optoelectronics , optics , doping , analytical chemistry (journal) , fiber laser , wavelength , metallurgy , oxide , chemistry , physics , chromatography , computer science , programming language , crystallography
A neodymium‐doped yttrium‐aluminum garnet (Y 3 A1 5 O 12 , YAG) (Nd:YAG) ceramic that contained 0.3–4.8 at.% neodymium additives and exhibited nearly the same optical properties as those of a single crystal was fabricated by a solid‐state reaction method using high‐purity powders. Although the integrated absorption intensity of the 2 H 9/2 + 4 F 5/2 bands simply increased as the neodymium concentration in the YAG ceramics decreased, the fluorescence intensity of the 2.4 at.% Nd:YAG ceramic was the strongest among Nd:YAG ceramics with various neodymium concentrations and a 0.9 at.% Nd:YAG single crystal. An oscillation experiment was performed on a continuous‐wave (cw) laser with a diode‐laser exciting system using those ceramics and the single crystal. The oscillation threshold and slope efficiency in that analysis were 309 mW and 28%, respectively, for the 1.1 at.% Nd:YAG ceramics and 356 mW and 40%, respectively, for the 2.4 at.% Nd:YAG ceramics. The lasing characteristics of the ceramics in the present work were superior to those of a 0.9 at.% Nd:YAG single crystal that was fabricated by the Czochralski (Cz) method.