Cryogenic laser operation of a “mixed” Yb:LuYAG garnet crystal

Sami Slimi (1) , Venkatesan Jambunathan (2) , Mingyan Pan (3) , Yicheng Wang (4) , Weidong Chen (5) , Pavel Loiko (6) , Rosa Maria Solé (1) , Magdalena Aguiló (1) , Francesc Díaz (1) , Martin Smrz (2) , Tomas Mocek (2) , Xavier Mateos (1)

1 Universitat Rovira i Virgili
2 FZU / CAS - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
3 SIOM - Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics
4 RUB - Ruhr University Bochum = Ruhr-Universität Bochum
5 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing]
6 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique

We report on the continuous-wave and passively Q-switched operation of a compositionally “mixed” heavily doped 16.6 at.% Yb:(Y,Lu) 3 Al 5 O 12 garnet crystal at cryogenic temperatures (100–200 K), pumped by a volume Bragg grating stabilized diode laser emitting at 969 nm. At 140 K, in the continuous-wave regime, a maximum output power of 10.65 W was achieved at ~ 1029 nm with a slope efficiency of 56% (versus the incident pump power), a laser threshold of 1.05 W and excellent beam quality. Using Cr 4+ :YAG as a saturable absorber, the passively Q-switched laser generated pulses with an energy/duration of 0.15 mJ/201 ns, respectively, at a repetition rate of 39.7 kHz, corresponding to a peak power of 0.39 kW.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Sami Slimi, Venkatesan Jambunathan, Mingyan Pan, Yicheng Wang, Weidong Chen, et al.. Cryogenic laser operation of a “mixed” Yb:LuYAG garnet crystal. Applied Physics B - Laser and Optics, 2023, 129 (4), pp.57. ⟨10.1007/s00340-023-07999-9⟩. ⟨hal-04209392⟩