Cryogenic Yb$^{3+}$-Doped Solid-State Lasers

Abstract

Cryogenically cooled solid-state lasers promise a revolution in power scalability while maintaining a good beam quality because of significant improvements in efficiency and thermo-optic properties. This is particularly true for Yb lasers because of their relatively low quantum defect and relatively broadband absorption even at cryogenic temperatures. Thermo-optic properties of host materials, including thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, and refractive index at low temperature, are reviewed and data presented for YAG (ceramic and single crystal), GGG, GdVO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> , and Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> . Spectroscopic properties of Yb:YAG and Yb:LiYF <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> (YLF) including absorption cross sections, emission cross sections, and fluorescence lifetimes at cryogenic temperatures are characterized. Recent experiments have pushed the power from an end-pumped cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG laser to 455-W continuous-wave output power from 640-W incident pump power at an of M <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> 1.4.