Growth and optical properties of a new CGG-type laser crystal Nd^3+:CNGS

Abstract

A novel CGG-type laser crystal of Nd3+:CNGS is characterized, including crystal growth, structure, refractive index, spectroscopic and laser performance. For Nd3+:CNGS crystal, the unit-cell parameters are a = 0.88897 ( ± 8.89 × 10−5) nm, c = 0.497998 ( ± 4.85 × 10−5) nm and V = 0.28219 nm3. The refractive index no and ne of Nd3+:CNGS were calculated to be 1.772 and 1.854 respectively at 1065 nm. The transmittance spectra of Nd3+:CNGS were measured, four main absorption peaks were located at 586 nm, 748 nm, 804 nm and 804 nm respectively. The absorption cross-section in z-axis is 6.08 × 10−20 cm2 around 804nm. The strongest emission peak of the fluorescence spectra was located at 1064 nm with the emission cross-section of 6.81 × 10−20 cm2 for E//x polarization and the fluorescence lifetime was 255.6 μs. Moreover, the continuous-wave laser at 1065 nm was obtained with the maximum output power of 1.43 W in the z-cut sample for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the optical conversion efficiency was 29.3% and the slope efficiency was 31.0%, which indicated that Nd3+:CNGS crystal should be a promising gain material.