Hydrothermal Synthesis and Growth of Ti:Sapphire(Ti3+:Al2O3) Laser Crystals.

摘要

Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti3+:Al2O3) crystals for high-power tunable lasers are presently in commercial production by growth from the melt. However, it is difficult to grow homogeneous crystals from the melt with uniform doping concentration because of the impurity segregation effect and more importantly, trivalent titanium instability. Hydrothermal synthesis has several advantages over traditional melt techniques. Here we report the growth of Ti3+:Al2O3 crystals by the hydrothermal technique for the first time (Although hydrothermal growth of ruby crystals was reported before, there is no report on hydrothermal growth of Ti-sapphire crystals to date). The experimental conditions for the hydrothermal synthesis of titanium doped sapphire (Ti3+:Al2O3) crystals are reported. Characterization of the grown crystals by EPR, optical microscopy and elemental analysis are also presented. The hydrothermal technique has demonstrated the potential to grow high quality; compositionally uniform and pure trivalent Ti (III) doped sapphire single crystals for laser applications.