Visible photoluminescence in polycrystalline terbium doped aluminum nitride (Tb:AlN) ceramics with high thermal conductivity

Abstract

Thermal management continues to be one of the major challenges in the development of high powered light sources such as solid state lasers. In particular, the relatively low thermal conductivity of standard photoluminescent (PL) materials limits the overall power output and/or duty cycle. We present a method based on current activated pressure assisted densification for the fabrication of high thermal conductivity PL materials: rare earth doped polycrystalline bulk aluminum nitride. Specifically, the ceramics are translucent and are doped with Tb3+, allowing for emission in the visible. Remarkably, the ceramics have a room temperature thermal conductivity of 94 W/(m K) which is almost seven times higher than that of the state of the art host material, Nd-doped yttrium aluminum garnet. These light emitting properties coupled with very high thermal conductivity should enable the development of a wide variety of more powerful light sources.