Luminescent and thermo-optical properties of Nd3+-doped yttrium aluminoborate laser glasses

Santos CN, Mohr D, Silva WF, de Camargo ASS, Eckert H, Li MS, Vermelho MVD, Hernandes AC, Ibanez A, Jacinto C

Abstract

In this work we performed a thorough spectroscopic and thermo-optical investigation of yttrium aluminoborate glasses doped with neodymium ions. A set of samples, prepared by the conventional melt-quenching technique and with Nd2 O3 concentrations varying from 0.1 to 0.75 mol%, were characterized by ground state absorption, photoluminescence, excited state lifetime measurements, and thermal lens technique. For the neodymium emission at 1064 nm (4F3/2 → 4I11/2 transition), no significant luminescence concentration quenching was observed and the experimental lifetime values ranged around 70 μs. The obtained values of thermal conductivity and diffusivity of approximately 10.3× 10 -3 W/cm K and 4.0× 10-3 cm2 /s, respectively, are comparable to those of commercial laser glasses. Moreover, the fluorescence quantum efficiency of the glasses, calculated using the Judd-Ofelt formalism and luminescence decay, lies in the range from 0.28 to 0.32, larger than the typical values obtained for Nd3+ doped YAl3 (BO3) 4 crystals. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.