Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials

Elias H. Penilla; Luis F. Devia-Cruz; Matthew A. Duarte; Corey L. Hardin; Yasuhiro Kodera; Javier E. Garay

doi:10.1038/s41377-018-0023-z

Go to Nature Website

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials

Original Articles

- Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 7, Issue 4, Pages: 250-261(2018)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Advanced Materials Processing and Synthesis (AMPS) Laboratory, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
  2.Materials Science & Engineering and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- Author bio：
  
  Javier E. Garay (jegaray@ucsd.edu)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-018-0023-z
  CLC：
- Published：2018，
  
  Published Online：04 July 2018，
  
  Received：17 January 2018，
  
  Revised：28 March 2018，
  
  Accepted：15 April 2018
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Penilla, E. H. et al. Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials. Light: Science & Applications, 7, 250-261 (2018).
DOI：

Penilla, E. H. et al. Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials. Light: Science & Applications, 7, 250-261 (2018). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-018-0023-z.

摘要

Abstract

Traditionally accepted design paradigms dictate that only optically isotropic (cubic) crystal structures with high equilibrium solubilities of optically active ions are suitable for polycrystalline laser gain media. The restriction of symmetry is due to light scattering caused by randomly oriented anisotropic crystals

whereas the solubility problem arises from the need for sufficient active dopants in the media. These criteria limit material choices and exclude materials that have superior thermo-mechanical properties than state-of-the-art laser materials. Alumina (Al

) is an ideal example; it has a higher fracture strength and thermal conductivity than today's gain materials

which could lead to revolutionary laser performance. However

alumina has uniaxial optical proprieties

and the solubility of rare earths (REs) is two-to-three orders of magnitude lower than the dopant concentrations in typical RE-based gain media. We present new strategies to overcome these obstacles and demonstrate gain in a RE-doped alumina (Nd:Al

) for the first time. The

key insight relies on tailoring the crystallite size to other important length scales—the wavelength of light and interatomic dopant distances

which minimize optical losses and allow successful Nd doping. The result is a laser gain medium with a thermo-mechanical figure of merit of

~19

500 Wm

−1

a 24-fold and 19

500-fold improvements over the high-energy-laser leaders Nd:YAG (

~800 Wm

−1

) and Nd:Glass (

~1 Wm

−1

)

respectively. Moreover

the emission bandwidth of Nd:Al

is broad: ~13 THz. The successful demonstration of gain and high bandwidth in a medium with superior

can lead to the development of lasers with previously unobtainable high-peak powers

short pulses

tunability

and high-duty cycles.

关键词

Keywords

references

Wieg, A. T., Kodera, Y., Wang, Z., Dames, C.&Garay, J. E. Thermomechanical properties of rare-earth-doped AlN for laser gain media: the role of grain boundaries and grain size.Acta. Mater.86, 148–156 (2015)..

Kim, W. et al. Ceramic windows and gain media for high-energy lasers.Opt. Eng.52, 021003 (2012)..

Kerse, C. et al. Ablation-cooled material removal with ultrafast bursts of pulses.Nature537, 84–88 (2016)..

Liu, R. M. et al. Strong light-matter interactions in single open plasmonic nanocavities at the quantum optics limit.Phys. Rev. Lett.118, 237401 (2017)..

Popmintchev, T. et al. Phase matching of high harmonic generation in the soft and hard X-ray regions of the spectrum.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA106, 10516–10521 (2009)..

Di Piazza, A., Müller, C., Hatsagortsyan, K. Z.&Keitel, C. H. Extremely high-intensity laser interactions with fundamental quantum systems.Rev. Mod. Phys.84, 1177–1228 (2012)..

Steinmeyer, J. D. et al. Construction of a femtosecond laser microsurgery system.Nat. Protoc.5, 395–407 (2010)..

Polini, M. Tuning terahertz lasers via graphene plasmons.Science351, 229–231 (2016)..

Ikesue, A.&Aung, Y. L. Synthesis and performance of advanced ceramic lasers.J. Am. Ceram. Soc.89, 1936–1944 (2006)..

Waxler, R. M., Cleek, G. W., Malitson, I. H., Dodge, M. J.&Hahn, T. A. Optical and mechanical properties of some neodymium-doped laser glasses.J. Res. Natl. Bur. Stand A75A, 163–174 (1971)..

Klein, P. H.&Croft, W. J. Thermal conductivity, diffusivity, and expansion of Y2O3, Y3Al5O12, and LaF3in the range 77°–300°K.J. Appl. Phys.38, 1603–1607 (1967)..

Ikesue, A.&Aung, Y. L. Ceramic laser materials.Nat. Photonics2, 721–727 (2008)..

Ikesue, A., Aung, Y. L., Taira, T., Kamimura, T.&Yoshida, K. et al. Progress in ceramic lasers.Annu. Rev. Mater. Res.36, 397–429 (2006)..

Ikesue, A. Polycrystalline Nd:YAG ceramics lasers.Opt. Mater.19, 183–187 (2002)..

Xu, C. W., Yang, C. D., Zhu, H. Y., Ye, Y. L.&Duan, Y. M. et al. Diode-pumped Nd:LuAG ceramic laser on 4F3/2-4I13/2transition.Opt. Mater.71, 121–124 (2017)..

Fornasiero, L., Mix, E., Peters, V., Petermann, K.&Huber, G. Czochralski growth and laser parameters of RE3+-doped Y2O3and Sc2O3.Ceram. Int.26, 589–592 (2000)..

Choudhary, A., Beecher, S. J., Dhingra, S., D'Urso, B.&Parsonage, T. L. et al. 456-mW graphene Q-switched Yb:yttria waveguide laser by evanescent-field interaction.Opt. Lett.40, 1912–1915 (2015)..

Toci, G., Vannini, M., Ciofini, M., Lapucci, A.&Pirri, A. et al. Nd3+-doped Lu2O3transparent sesquioxide ceramics elaborated by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method. Part 2: first laser output results and comparison with Nd3+-doped Lu2O3and Nd3+-Y2O3ceramics elaborated by a conventional method.Opt. Mater.41, 12–16 (2015)..

Penilla, E. H., Kodera, Y.&Garay, J. E. Blue-green emission in terbium-doped alumina (Tb: Al2O3) transparent ceramics.Adv. Funct. Mater.23, 6036–6043 (2013)..

Lupei, V., Lupei, A.&Ikesue, A. Transparent polycrystalline ceramic laser materials.Opt. Mater.30, 1781–1786 (2008)..

Powell, R. W., Ho, C. Y.&Liley, P. E.Thermal Conductivity of Selected Materials. National Standard Reference Data Series. (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, 1966; 1–175.

Yao, W. L., Liu, J., Holland, T. B., Huang, L.&Xiong, Y. H. et al. Grain size dependence of fracture toughness for fine grained alumina.Scr. Mater.65, 143–146 (2011)..

Li W. W., He D. B., Li S. G., Chen W., Chen S. B. et al. Optical and thermal properties of a new ND-doped phosphate laser glass. InProc. SPIE Pacific Rim Laser Damage 2013: Optical Materials for High Power Lasers. 878629 (SPIE, Shanghai, China, 2013).

Koechner, W.Solid-State Laser Engineering(Springer, Berlin, 2006).

Maiman, T. H. Stimulated optical radiation in ruby.Nature187, 493–494 (1960)..

Wall, K. F.&Sanchez, A. Titanium sapphire lasers.Linc. Lab J.3, 447–462 (1990)..

Chambers, M. D.&Clarke, D. R. Doped oxides for high-temperature luminescence and lifetime thermometry.Annu Rev. Mater. Res.39, 325–359 (2009)..

Williams, G. R., Bayram, S. B., Rand, S. C., Hinklin, T.&Laine, R. M. Laser action in strongly scattering rare-earth-metal-doped dielectric nanophosphors.Phys. Rev. A65, 013807 (2001)..

Li, B., Williams, G., Rand, S. C., Hinklin, T.&Laine, R. M. Continuous-wave ultraviolet laser action in strongly scattering Nd-doped Alumina.Opt. Lett.27, 394–396 (2002)..

Song, Q., Li, C. R., Li, J. Y., Ding, W. Y.&Li, S. F. et al. Photoluminescence properties of the Yb: Er co-doped Al2O3thin film fabricated by microwave ECR plasma source enhanced RF magnetron sputtering.Opt. Mater.28, 1344–1349 (2006)..

Zhou, B., Xiao, Z. S., Huang, A. P., Yan, L.&Zhu, F. et al. Effect of Tm–Er concentration ratio on the photoluminescence of Er–Tm: Al2O3thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition.Prog. Nat. Sci.18, 661–664 (2008)..

Serna, R., Nuñez-Sanchez, S., Xu, F.&Afonso, C. N. Enhanced photoluminescence of rare-earth doped films prepared by off-axis pulsed laser deposition.Appl. Surf. Sci.257, 5204–5207 (2011)..

Kumaran, R., Webster, S. E., Penson, S., Li, W.&Tiedje, T. et al. Epitaxial neodymium-doped sapphire films, a new active medium for waveguide lasers.Opt. Lett.34, 3358–3360 (2009)..

Kumaran, R., Tiedje, T., Webster, S. E., Penson, S.&Li, W. Epitaxial Nd-doped α-(Al1−xGax)2O3 films on sapphire for solid-state waveguide lasers.Opt. Lett.35, 3793–3795 (2010)..

Waeselmann, S. H., Heinrich, S., Kränkel, C.&Huber, G. Lasing of Nd3+in sapphire.Laser Photonics Rev.10, 510–516 (2016)..

Waeselmann S. H., Heinrich S., Kraenkel C., Huber G. Lasing in Nd3+-doped sapphire. Adv. Solid State Lasers. 6–8pp (OSA, Berlin, Germany, 2015).

Waeselmann, S. H., Rüter, C. E., Kip, D., Kränkel, C.&Huber, G. Nd: sapphire channel waveguide laser.Opt. Mater. Express7, 2361–2367 (2017)..

Apetz, R.&Van Bruggen, M. P. B. Transparent alumina: a light-scattering model.J. Am. Ceram. Soc.86, 480–486 (2003)..

Penilla, E. H., Hardin, C. L., Kodera, Y., Basun, S. A.&Evans, D. R. et al. The role of scattering and absorption on the optical properties of birefringent polycrystalline ceramics: modeling and experiments on ruby (Cr: Al2O3).J. Appl. Phys.2, 023106 (2016)..

Krebs, J. K.&Happek, U. Yb3+energy levels in a-Al2O3.J. Lumin.94-95, 65–68 (2001)..

Sanamyan, T., Pavlacka, R., Gilde, G.&Dubinskii, M. Spectroscopic properties of Er3+-doped α-Al2O3.Opt. Mater.35, 821–826 (2013)..

Pecharromán, C., Mata-Osoro, G., Díaz, L. A., Torrecillas, R.&Moya, J. S. On the transparency of nanostructured alumina: Rayleigh-Gans model for anisotropic spheres.Opt. Express17, 6899–6912 (2009)..

Penilla, E.H., Kodera, Y.&Garay, J. E. Simultaneous Synthesis and densification of transparent, photoluminescent polycrystalline YAG by current activated pressure assisted densification (CAPAD).Mater. Sci. Eng. B177, 1178–1187 (2012)..

Bodišová, K., Klement, R., Galusek, D., Pouchlý, V.&Drdlík, D. et al. Luminescent rare-earth-doped transparent alumina ceramics.J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.36, 2975–2980 (2016)..

Thompson, A. M., Soni, K. K., Chan, H. M., Harmer, M. P.&Williams, D. B. Dopant distributions in rare-earth-doped alumina.J. Am. Ceram. Soc.80, 373–376 (1997)..

Cho, J., Wang, C. M., Chan, H. M., Rickman, J. M.&Harmer, M. P. A study of grain-boundary structure in rare-earth doped aluminas using an EBSD technique.J. Mater. Sci.37, 59–64 (2002)..

Garay, J. E. Current-activated, pressure-assisted densification of materials.Annu Rev. Mater. Res.40, 445–468 (2010)..

Cantwell, P. R., Ma, S. L., Bojarski, S. A., Rohrer, G. S.&Harmer, M. P. Expanding time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams to interfaces: a new approach for grain boundary engineering.Acta. Mater.106, 78–86 (2016)..

Bojarski, S. A.., Stuer, M.., Zhao, Z.., Bowen, P..,&Rohrer, G. S.. Influence of Y and La additions on grain growth and the grain-boundary character distribution of alumina.J. Am. Ceram. Soc.97, 622–630 (2014)..

Grasso, S., Yoshida, H., Porwal, H., Sakka, Y.&Reece, M. Highly transparent α-alumina obtained by low cost high pressure SPS.Ceram. Int.39, 3243–3248 (2013)..

Yoon, S. J.&Mackenzie, J. I. Cryogenically cooled 946nm Nd: YAG laser.Opt. Express22, 8069–8075 (2014)..

Krupke, W. Radiative transition probabilities within the 4f3 ground configuration of Nd: YAG.IEEE J. Quantum Electron7, 153–159 (1971)..

Kaminskii, A. A.Laser Crystals: Their Physics and Properties. (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 1990).

Silfvast, W. T.Laser Fundamentals.. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004).

Campbell, J. H.&Suratwala, T. I. Nd-doped phosphate glasses for high-energy/high-peak-power lasers.J. Non Cryst. Solids236-264, 318–341 (2000)..

Aull, B.&Jenssen, H. Vibronic interactions in Nd: YAG resulting in nonreciprocity of absorption and stimulated emission cross sections.IEEE J. Quantum Electron18, 925–930 (1982)..

Lai S. T. Review of spectroscopic and laser properties of emerald. InProc. Volume0622, High Power and Solid State Lasers. 146–150 (SPIE, Los Angeles, CA, 1986)..

Silfvast W. T.Fundamentals of Photonics.pp1–45 (SPIE, Storrs, CT, 2003).

Views

Downloads

CSCD

Alert me when the article has been cited

Submit

Tools

Publicity Resources

No data

Related Author

No data

Related Institution

No data

⁰