Nd:AlN polycrystalline ceramics: A candidate media for tunable, high energy, near IR lasers
Abstract
We present processing and characterization of Nd-doped aluminum nitride (Nd:AlN) polycrystalline ceramics. We compare ceramics with significant segregation of Nd to those exhibiting minimal segregation. Spatially resolved photoluminescence maps reveal a strong correlation between homogeneous Nd doping and spatially homogeneous light emission. The spectroscopically resolved light emission lines show excellent agreement with the expected Nd electronic transitions. Notably, the lines are significantly broadened, producing near IR emission (∼1077 nm) with a remarkable ∼100 nm bandwidth at room temperature. We attribute the broadened lines to a combination of effects: multiple Nd-sites, anisotropy of AlN and phonon broadening. These broadened, overlapping lines in a media with excellent thermal conductivity have potential for Nd-based, tunable lasers with high average power.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 19, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4962829
Entities
People
- A. T. Wieg
- J. E. Garay
- Max Grossnickle
- N. M. Gabor
- Yasuhiro Kodera
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Department of Energy
- University of California