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PLD growth of complex waveguide structures for applications in thin-film lasers: a 25 year retrospective

PLD growth of complex waveguide structures for applications in thin-film lasers: a 25 year retrospective
PLD growth of complex waveguide structures for applications in thin-film lasers: a 25 year retrospective
We have been using PLD to grow doped crystalline films of a range of laser hosts that include garnets (YAG, GGG and other variants), sapphire and, most recently, cubic sesquioxides (Y2O3, Sc2O3, and Lu2O3) for application as optically-pumped waveguide lasers. For the sesquioxides in particular, PLD offers a real advantage in terms of the ~1100K temperature required to grow crystalline thin films in comparison to ~2750K required to grow bulk crystals. We have grown these materials at deposition rates of up to ~5 µm per hour, on cheap and readily available single crystal substrates, which allows rapid production of waveguide samples of the ~10-30 µm thickness required for efficient pumping via high power diode lasers.
We will describe the range of PLD techniques we have used to date, that include single-beam, multi-beam, consecutive and combinatorial as well as fast shuttering of multiple laser sources onto different targets. We will discuss strategies we have adopted to grow complex structures in both the vertical and horizontal planes of the waveguides, including multilayers, capped, graded and volume Bragg structures. Finally we will describe post-processing we have performed on the waveguides to improve the final mode quality of the lasing output produced, and to generate q-switched output via local deposition of graphene that acts as a Q-switch.

Our current levels of lasing output are approaching 20W in c.w. mode, and we will describe our strategy to exceed this via a MOPA structure using multiple PLD-grown waveguides.
Eason, Robert
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Shepherd, David
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Mackenzie, Jacob
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Hua, Ping
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Grant-Jacob, James
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Beecher, Stephen
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Choudhary, Amol
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Grivas, Christos
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Anderson, Andrew A.
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May-Smith, Timothy
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Barrington, S.J.
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Sloyan, Katherine
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Eason, Robert
e38684c3-d18c-41b9-a4aa-def67283b020
Shepherd, David
9fdd51c4-39d6-41b3-9021-4c033c2f4ead
Mackenzie, Jacob
1d82c826-fdbf-425b-ac04-be43ccf12008
Hua, Ping
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Grant-Jacob, James
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Beecher, Stephen
b3664adc-d6b5-4a5a-a09a-8e1415c6d3f5
Choudhary, Amol
a5540b54-f153-43e4-a59a-e3ed9360904b
Grivas, Christos
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Anderson, Andrew A.
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May-Smith, Timothy
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Barrington, S.J.
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Sloyan, Katherine
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Eason, Robert, Shepherd, David, Mackenzie, Jacob, Hua, Ping, Grant-Jacob, James, Beecher, Stephen, Choudhary, Amol, Grivas, Christos, Anderson, Andrew A., May-Smith, Timothy, Barrington, S.J. and Sloyan, Katherine (2016) PLD growth of complex waveguide structures for applications in thin-film lasers: a 25 year retrospective. E-MRS 2016 Fall Meeting, Warsaw, Poland. 19 - 22 Sep 2016.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Other)

Abstract

We have been using PLD to grow doped crystalline films of a range of laser hosts that include garnets (YAG, GGG and other variants), sapphire and, most recently, cubic sesquioxides (Y2O3, Sc2O3, and Lu2O3) for application as optically-pumped waveguide lasers. For the sesquioxides in particular, PLD offers a real advantage in terms of the ~1100K temperature required to grow crystalline thin films in comparison to ~2750K required to grow bulk crystals. We have grown these materials at deposition rates of up to ~5 µm per hour, on cheap and readily available single crystal substrates, which allows rapid production of waveguide samples of the ~10-30 µm thickness required for efficient pumping via high power diode lasers.
We will describe the range of PLD techniques we have used to date, that include single-beam, multi-beam, consecutive and combinatorial as well as fast shuttering of multiple laser sources onto different targets. We will discuss strategies we have adopted to grow complex structures in both the vertical and horizontal planes of the waveguides, including multilayers, capped, graded and volume Bragg structures. Finally we will describe post-processing we have performed on the waveguides to improve the final mode quality of the lasing output produced, and to generate q-switched output via local deposition of graphene that acts as a Q-switch.

Our current levels of lasing output are approaching 20W in c.w. mode, and we will describe our strategy to exceed this via a MOPA structure using multiple PLD-grown waveguides.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: September 2016
Additional Information: Symposium Y: Pulsed-laser deposition of thin films: 30 years of fundamentals, innovative materials and applications
Venue - Dates: E-MRS 2016 Fall Meeting, Warsaw, Poland, 2016-09-19 - 2016-09-22
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 397194
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/397194
PURE UUID: 59eaf978-c628-4d34-9f9d-d34b66c9ae03
ORCID for Robert Eason: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9704-2204
ORCID for David Shepherd: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4561-8184
ORCID for Jacob Mackenzie: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3355-6051
ORCID for James Grant-Jacob: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4270-4247

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Jun 2016 12:47
Last modified: 07 Feb 2023 02:53

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Contributors

Author: Robert Eason ORCID iD
Author: David Shepherd ORCID iD
Author: Jacob Mackenzie ORCID iD
Author: Ping Hua
Author: James Grant-Jacob ORCID iD
Author: Stephen Beecher
Author: Amol Choudhary
Author: Christos Grivas
Author: Andrew A. Anderson
Author: Timothy May-Smith
Author: S.J. Barrington
Author: Katherine Sloyan

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