Laser rods - Ytterbium doped

Laser rods - Ytterbium doped
Crytur delivers high quality laser rods based on proprietary crystals and in-house processing and coating

Yb:YAG

The Yb3+ ion exhibits a small quantum defect and a quasi-three level system with a long upper laser level lifetime, which is important for energy accumulation in Q-switched lasers.

The wide luminescence band of Yb3+ is advantageous for the generation of sub-picosecond pulses. Long energy storage lifetime, broad absorption band at 940 nm and very low quantum defect make Yb:YAG crystal superior candidate for diode-pumped high-energy lasers.

 

Material characteristics
Crystal structure cubic - la3d
Emission wavelength 1030 nm
Pump bands 941 nm, 969 nm
Refractive index at 632 nm 1.83
Absorption cross section at 940 nm 8.2 x 10-21 cm2
Emission cross section at 2013 nm 2.1 x 10-20 cm2
Design
Rod or disc diameters 2 – 80 mm
Rod length or disc thickness  0.1 - 100 mm
Doping concentration 1 – 10 at.%
Polishing Barrel surface fine ground or polished. Perpendicular or wedged ends.
Polishing according to DIN and MIL standards.
Coatings HfO2 based high reflectors, output couplers or antireflective coating

 

Application example: Q-Switched Yb:YAG-Cr:YAG microchip laser

The Yb:YAG/Cr:YAG microchip laser threshold pumping power was found to be 3.3 W. With the increasing pumping power the mean output power, and generated pulse repetition rate also increased up to 1 W and 13.6 kHz, respectively, for the pumping power 9.3 W. The maxim output power was reached without observable thermal roll-over.
The laser slope efficiency in respect to incident pumping power was ≈ 17 %. The average pulse width was 1.58 ± 0.04 ns. The maximum pulse energy and peak power value were 73.8 ± 0.7 µJ, and 46.0 ± 0.8kW, respectively.

 

Related download

Yb:YAG disc
Yb:YAG in large-area, high-energy diode-pumped lasers

Yb:LuAG

Yb:LuAG is very promising Yb-doped laser material. The optical and mechanical properties of LuAG are very similar to YAG crystal. Thanks to similar atomic weight and ionic size of doping Yb3+ ions and substituted Lu3+ lattice ions, the doping concentration has a low influence on lattice vibration modes of LuAG which allow to obtain highly doped Yb:LuAG laser crystal without significant influence on thermal conductivity of this material. 

 

Material characteristics
Crystal structure cubic - la3d
Emission wavelength 1031 nm
Pump bands 940 nm, 968 nm
Refractive index at 632 nm 1.84
Absorption cross section at 938 nm 7.2 x 10-21 cm2
Emission cross section at 2031 nm 2.6 x 10-20 cm2
Design
Rod and disc diameters  2 – 20 mm
Disc thickness or rod length 0.1 – 100 mm
Doping concentration 1% - 10% at.
Polishing Barrel surface fine ground or polished. Perpendicular or wedged ends.
Polishing according to DIN and MIL standards.
Coatings HfO2 based high reflectors, output couplers or antireflective coating

 1 K. Beil, S. T. Fredrich-Thornton, R. Peters, K. Petermann, and G. Huber, “Yb-doped thin-disk laser materials: A comparison between Yb:LuAG and Yb:YAG,” in Advanced Solid-State Photonics 2009 Technical Digest on CD-ROM, WB28, OSA, 2009.