Experimental and modeling study of Er:YAG kinetics

摘要

Erbium doped YAG is an intriguing laser material which lases directly at 1645nm when pumped at either 1473nm or 1532nm, all of which are in the eye-safe band. However, a laser made from this material is not particularly straightforward to design. Er:YAG is a quasi-three-level system, which leads to strong temperature dependence. Perhaps more importantly, a strong up-conversion process, which is dopant concentration dependent, effectively produces a pump intensity dependence in the saturation intensity and other laser parameters. We present a detailed study of the absorption coefficient and the gain as a function of the pump intensity, dopant concentration and crystal temperature. The results of this study will allow us to optimally design the laser.