Growth and spectroscopic properties of Yb3+:Gd0.5Y0.5Ca4O(BO3)3 crystal
Introduction
Recently Yb-doped crystalline hosts have aroused interest due to the development of solid-state laser with InGaAs diode-pumped. The rare earth calcium oxoborate family (ReCa4O(BO3)3 where Re = Y, Gd, La) is a series of efficient non-linear optical crystals [1], [2]. Since the Re in ReCa4O(BO3)3 crystals can be replaced by Nd3+, Yb3+ or other rare earth ions, they can be considered as a laser crystal materials and self-frequency doubling laser crystal materials [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. The mixed Gd0.5Y0.5Ca4O(BO3)3 (GdYCOB) crystal has been developed as a non-linear optical crystal [9], [10]. However, a little attention was paid to Yb3+-doped mixed GdYCOB crystal. In this paper, we report the crystal growth and spectroscopic properties of Yb3+:GdYCOB.
Section snippets
Crystal growth
The chemicals used were Gd2O3, Y2O3, Yb2O3, CaCO3 and B2O3 with purity of 99.99%. The raw materials were weighed according to the stoichiometric ratio of formula Yb3+:GdYCOB. Considering evaporation of B2O3 during the growth, excess B2O3 was added to the raw materials to compensate the loss of B2O3 volatilization in the growing process. After grinding, mixing and pressing, the mixture was sintered at 1200 °C for 36 h.
Yb3+:GdYCOB crystal was grown by Czochralski method in a 2 kHz frequency furnace
Spectroscopic properties
A sample of Yb3+:GdYCOB crystal with dimensions 2.4 mm × 3 mm × 3mm was cut from as-grown crystal for measurement of absorption and emission spectra. The absorption spectrum was recorded using a Cary-5E UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer at room temperature, which was measured in the range from 800 to 1100 nm. Photoluminescence spectrum was measured at room temperature using FLS 920 LifeSpec PS spectrophotometer at room temperature, which contained a Hamamatsu/R5509 photodetector.
Fig. 3 shows the absorption
Conclusion
A large and transparent Yb3+:GdYCOB crystal with dimensions up to ϕ30 mm× 58 mm has been grown by the Czochralski method. The absorption cross-section (σa) is 1.65 × 10−20 cm2 at 977 nm. The emission band at 1020 nm has an FWHM of 37.2 nm. The emission cross-section σe is 0.25 × 10−20 cm2 at 1020 nm wavelength. The fluorescence lifetime is 3.00 ms. Comparison with other Yb3+-doped oxoborate crystals (see Table 1), the Yb3+:GdYCOB crystal has a large absorption cross-section and longer lifetime. It is
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 50272066) and Key Project of Science and Technology of Fujian Province (2001H107).
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