Articolo in rivista, 2018, ENG, 10.1016/j.optmat.2018.06.006

High efficiency emission of a laser based on Yb-doped (Lu,Y)2O3 ceramic

Toci G.; Pirri A.; Patrizi B.; Maksimov R.N.; Osipov V.V.; Shitov V.A.; Yurovskikh A.S.; Vannini M.

C.N.R. - National Research Council, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, I-50019, , , Italy; C.N.R. - National Research Council, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, I-50019, , , Italy; C.N.R. - National Research Council, Istituto di Fisica Applicata, "Nello Carrara", Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto F.no, FI, I-50019, , Italy; C.N.R. - National Research Council, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Via G. Moruzzi, 1, Pisa, PI, I-56124, , , Italy; C.N.R. - National Research Council, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Via G. Moruzzi, 1, Pisa, PI, I-56124, , , Italy; Institute of Electrophysics UrB RAS, Amundsen St. 106, Ekaterinburg, 620016, , Russian Federation; Ural Federal University Named After the First President of Russia B.N, Yeltsin, Mira St. 19, Ekaterinburg, 620002, , Russian Federation

We demonstrated highly efficient laser emission of a 6% at. Yb:(Lu,Y)2O3 ceramic sample with formula (Yb0.06Lu0.12Y0.78Zr0.04)2O3 (i.e. Yb doped solid solution of Y2O3 and Lu2O3 with Zirconia as sintering aid) fabricated by means of solid-state sintering of mixed sesquioxide nanoparticles under vacuum. The ceramics features a very good optical quality, with a transmission very close to the theoretical limit. The spectroscopic characteristics were investigated, resulting in intermediate properties between Yb:Y2O3 and Yb:Lu2O3. Laser emission was obtained under diode pumping at 936 nm, in CW and quasi-CW pumping condition. We measured a maximum output power of 3.9 W at 1077 nm while the highest slope efficiency was 51.2%, in quasi-CW regime. In CW, at the same laser wavelength, the output power was 2.2 W with a corresponding slope efficiency of 35.1%. The explored range of tunability, 97 nm, is to the best of our knowledge one of the broadest and continuous intervals measured with Yb-doped materials. Mixed Lu-Y ceramic sesquioxides appear then as a promising laser material for broadly tunable laser sources and, in consequence, for the generation of ultrashort laser pulses.

Optical materials (Amst., Print) 83 , pp. 182–186

Keywords

laser materials, Ytterbium, transparent ceramics

CNR authors

Toci Guido, Pirri Angela, Patrizi Barbara, Vannini Matteo

CNR institutes

IFAC – Istituto di fisica applicata "Nello Carrara", INO – Istituto nazionale di ottica