Li Yiyu, Yada Hiroyuki, Ichikawa Yuki
IMRA AMERICA, INC., 1044 Woodridge Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105-9774, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 2;14(1):22894. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-73172-7.
Laser ceramics have emerged as promising candidates of solid-state laser gain media. However, most laser ceramics are currently focused on lasing in the infrared wavelength range. The very limited options of host materials and the increased optical scattering losses at shorter wavelengths within ceramics have greatly limited the development of visible laser ceramics. Here we report visible laser ceramics with a composition of 0.5%Pr,5%Y:SrF, in which a visible (orange) laser oscillation at 605 nm has been successfully achieved at room temperature pumped by InGaN blue laser diodes with a maximum slope efficiency of 8.1%. The ceramics were fabricated by vacuum hot pressing (VHP) of wet-chemistry synthesized 0.5%Pr,5%Y:SrF powders, followed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). It was found that the visible laser ceramics exhibited a lower optical scattering loss along the processing pressure direction of the VHP process, indicating a uniaxial anisotropy in optical transmission within the ceramics. To our best knowledge, the current work is the first report on visible laser ceramics lasing in the orange region at ambient temperature, fabricated from chemically synthesized powders, which could pave the way for future scientific research on and industrial applications of more sophisticated and cost-effective visible laser ceramics.
激光陶瓷已成为固态激光增益介质的有前途的候选材料。然而，目前大多数激光陶瓷专注于红外波长范围内的激光发射。基质材料的选择非常有限，并且陶瓷在较短波长处光学散射损耗增加，这极大地限制了可见激光陶瓷的发展。在此，我们报道了一种组成为0.5%Pr、5%Y:SrF的可见激光陶瓷，在室温下用InGaN蓝色激光二极管泵浦时，在605nm处成功实现了可见（橙色）激光振荡，最大斜率效率为8.1%。这些陶瓷通过对湿化学合成的0.5%Pr、5%Y:SrF粉末进行真空热压（VHP），然后进行热等静压（HIP）制备而成。研究发现，可见激光陶瓷在VHP工艺的加工压力方向上表现出较低的光学散射损耗，表明陶瓷内部的光传输具有单轴各向异性。据我们所知，目前的工作是关于由化学合成粉末制备的可见激光陶瓷在室温下在橙色区域发射激光的首次报道，这可能为未来更复杂且成本效益更高的可见激光陶瓷的科学研究和工业应用铺平道路。
