Spectroscopic and continuous-wave laser properties of Er:GdScO<sub>3</sub> crystal at 2.7 µm
Wentao Hou, Hengyu Zhao, Zhipeng Qin, Jian Liu, Donghai Wang, Yanyan Xue, Qing‐Guo Wang, Guoqiang Xie, Xiaodong Xu, Jun Xu
Abstract
Er:GdScO 3 crystal was grown by the edge-defined film-fed (EFG) method for the first time. The rocking curve showed that the as-grown crystal has a high crystalline quality. The peak absorption cross section at 980 nm is 0.38×10 −20 cm 2 with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 19.5 nm and the peak emission cross section at 2720 nm is 0.93×10 −20 cm 2 with FWHM of 149.0 nm. The fluorescence lifetimes of 4 I 11/2 and 4 I 13/2 were fitted to be 2.24 ms and 4.57 ms, respectively. At inversion ratio P≥0.5, the positive local peak of gain cross-section at 2.7 µm was obtained. Continuous-wave laser operation of Er:GdScO 3 crystal was demonstrated. The maximum output power of 863 mW was obtained with a slope efficiency of 11.25%. The results indicated that Er:GdScO 3 crystal is a potential laser material for 2.7 µm laser.