Furuse Hiroaki, Horiuchi Naohiro, Kim Byung-Nam
Kitami Institute of Technology, 165 Koen-cho, Kitami, Hokkaido, 090-8507, Japan.
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 2-3-10 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0062, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 16;9(1):10300. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46616-8.
Transparent polycrystalline ceramics with cubic crystal structure have played important roles in a wide variety of solid-state laser applications, whereas for non-cubic structures, single crystal only has been used. For further progress in optical technologies, effective materials beyond the current limitations are necessary. Here we report a new type of non-cubic ceramic laser material that overturns conventional common sense. It is hexagonal Nd-doped fluorapatite (Nd:FAP) ceramics with an optical quality comparable to single crystal while having random crystal orientation. It is composed of ultrafine grains with a loss coefficient of 0.18 cm at a lasing wavelength of 1063 nm, and its laser oscillation was demonstrated. This is the first verification of lasing in randomly oriented non-cubic ceramics. Laser oscillation in the non-cubic ceramics was realized through both advanced liquid-phase nano-powder synthesis technology and highly controlled pulsed-current sintering techniques. Our findings should open new avenues for future solid-state laser and optical applications.
具有立方晶体结构的透明多晶陶瓷在各种固态激光应用中发挥了重要作用，而对于非立方结构，仅使用了单晶。为了光学技术的进一步发展，需要超越当前限制的有效材料。在此，我们报道了一种新型的非立方陶瓷激光材料，它颠覆了传统常识。它是掺钕六方氟磷灰石（Nd:FAP）陶瓷，其光学质量与单晶相当，同时具有随机的晶体取向。它由超细晶粒组成，在1063nm的激光波长下损耗系数为0.18cm，并展示了其激光振荡。这是对随机取向非立方陶瓷中激光发射的首次验证。通过先进的液相纳米粉末合成技术和高度可控的脉冲电流烧结技术，实现了非立方陶瓷中的激光振荡。我们的发现应为未来的固态激光和光学应用开辟新的途径。
