Doped sesquioxide growth by pulsed laser deposition for planar waveguide lasing applications

Parsonage, T.L., Sloyan, K.A., Szela, J.W., Mackenzie, J.I. and Eason, R.W. (2013) Doped sesquioxide growth by pulsed laser deposition for planar waveguide lasing applications. Conference on Laser Ablation (COLA 2013), Ischia, Italy. 06 - 10 Oct 2013.

Abstract

Sesquioxides, particularly yttria (Y₂O₃), lutetia (Lu₂O₃) and scandia (Sc₂O₃), are promising host materials for high power laser applications due to their high thermal conductivities, damage thesholds and their ability to incorporate a range of rare earth elements [1]; here we are focussing on thulium (Tm) and ytterbium (Yb) as our dopants. We have demonstrated thin film growth of doped sesquioxides by pulsed laser deposition as both single layers and cladded multilayers, and their ability to act as waveguides. Growth conditions are optimised by analysis of film crystallinity and presence of particulates. Highly crystalline films with low particulate counts are then put through waveguide characterisation and lasing experiments. Our work includes the growth of a 12µm-thick crystalline thulium doped yttria waveguide on a YAG substrate that, when pumped with a maximum of 600mW at 797nm, lased with an output of 35mW at 1.95µm, with 9% slope efficiency; this is the first example of such thin film Tm:yttria lasing to our knowledge. We will discuss these results and report progress towards higher power lasing by growth of lower loss cladded multilayer structures and thicker films (>30µm), suitable for diode pumping.

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Contributors

Author: J.I. Mackenzie

Author: R.W. Eason

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