Transparent polycrystalline YAG with nearly the same optical characteristics as those of a single crystal were fabricated by a solid-state reaction method using high-purity powders (>99.99 wt% purity). The average grain size and relative density of the 1.1 at.% ND:YAG ceramics obtained were about 50 {micro}m and 99.98%, respectively. An oscillation experiment was performed on a cw laser by the diode laser excitation system using the fabricated ceramics. The experimental results indicated an oscillation threshold and a slope efficiency of 309 mW and 28%, respectively. These values were equivalent or superior to those of the 0.9 at.% ND:YAG single crystal fabricated by the Czochralski method.

Fabrication and Optical Properties of High-Performance Polycrystalline Nd:YAG Ceramics for Solid-State Lasers

The word 'ceramics' is derived from the Greek keramos, meaning pottery and porcelain. The opaque and translucent cement and clay often used in tableware are not appropriate for optical applications because of the high content of optical scattering sources, that is, defects. Recently, scientists have shown that by eliminating the defects, a new, refined ceramic material — polycrystalline ceramic — can be produced. This advanced ceramic material offers practical laser generation and is anticipated to be a highly attractive alternative to conventional glass and single-crystal laser technologies in the future. Here we review the history of the development of ceramic lasers, the principle of laser generation based on this material, some typical results achieved with ceramic lasers so far, and discuss the potential future outlook for the field.

Ceramic laser materials

The temperature-dependent characteristics of fluorescence of several rare-earth-doped ceramic phosphors has made these materials the focus of a major effort in the field of noncontact thermometry over the past few decades. These “thermographic phosphors,” e.g., Y2O3:Eu, have been used for remote measurements of the temperatures of both static and moving surfaces, and have performed many other tasks that standard sensors (thermocouples, thermistors, etc.) cannot. The range of usefulness of this class of materials extends from cryogenic temperatures to those approaching 2000 °C. The instrumentation needed for this type of thermometry has followed many different lines of development, and this evolution has produced a wide variety of both field- and laboratory-grade systems that are now described in the literature. In general, the technique offers high sensitivity (≈0.05 °C), robustness (e.g., stability of the sensor sample in harsh environments), and NIST traceability. In addition, such systems have been suc...

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Remote thermometry with thermographic phosphors: Instrumentation and applications

Neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Y3Al5O12) nanocrystalline ceramics—a new generation of solid state laser and optical materials

Transparent ceramics: Processing, materials and applications

A method of making a laser body from a high density yttria-based ceramic material is provided. The method involves forming an aqueous solution containing water soluble salts of yttrium, thorium and neodymium, coprecipitating the cations from solution with oxalic acid, recovering the oxalate precipitate in the form of a purified dried powder, calcining the powder to convert the oxalates to the oxides, particulating the oxides in a rubber-lined ball mill, pressing the powdered oxides into a "green body", sintering the "green body" in a hydrogen atmosphere and rapidly cooling the sintered body to form an improved lasing ceramic material.

Roth Walter L

Papers

Polycrystalline ceramic lasers