Optimized Growth and Laser Application of Yb:LuAG Single-Crystal Fibers by Micro-Pulling-Down Technique

• Published in: Crystals (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 2; p. 78
• Main Authors: Wang, Anye, Zhang, Jian, Ye, Shuai, Ma, Xiaofei, Wu, Baiyi, Wang, Siyuan, Wang, Feifei, Wang, Tao, Zhang, Baitao, Jia, Zhitai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-02-2021
• Subjects: Continuous radiation; Crystal fibers; Crystal pulling; Crystals; CW laser; Efficiency; Electron probe microanalysis; Heat conductivity; High power lasers; Laser applications; Laser outputs; Lasers; micro-pulling-down; Q factors; Single crystals; single-crystal fiber; Solid state lasers; Spectrum analysis; Yb:LuAG; Japan
• ISSN: 2073-4352; 2073-4352
• DOI: 10.3390/cryst11020078

Single-crystal fibers (SCFs) have a great application potential in high-power lasers due to their excellent performance. In this work, high-quality and crack-free Yb3+:Lu3Al5O12 (Yb:LuAG) SCFs were successfully fabricated by the micro-pulling-down (μ-PD) technology. Based on the laser micrometer and the X-ray Laue diffraction results, these Yb:LuAG SCFs have a less than 5% diameter fluctuation and good crystallinity along the axial direction. More importantly, the distribution of Yb ions is proved to be uniform by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and the scanning electron microscope (SEM). In the laser experiment, the continuous-wave (CW) output power using a 1 mm diameter Yb:LuAG single-crystal fiber is determined to be 1.96 W, at the central wavelength of 1047 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 13.55%. Meanwhile, by applying a 3 mm diameter Yb:LuAG SCF, we obtain a 4.7 W CW laser output at 1049 nm with the slope efficiency of 22.17%. The beam quality factor M2 is less than 1.1 in both conditions, indicating a good optical quality of the grown fiber. Our results show that the Yb:LuAG SCF is a potential solid-state laser gain medium for 1 μm high-power lasers.