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

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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
- Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials
- LSA 2018年7卷第4期页码：250-261
- 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
  中图分类号：
- 纸质出版日期：2018，
  
  网络出版日期：2018-07-04，
  
  收稿日期：2018-01-17，
  
  修回日期：2018-03-28，
  
  录用日期：2018-04-15
- Accepted：
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Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials[J]. LSA, 2018,7(4):250-261.

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).
Gain in polycrystalline Nd-doped alumina: leveraging length scales to create a new class of high-energy, short pulse, tunable laser materials[J]. LSA, 2018,7(4):250-261. DOI： 10.1038/s41377-018-0023-z.

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

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