Abstract
Ce 3+-activated LiCaAlF 6 (LiCAF) and LiSrAlF 6 (LiSAF) single crystals are the most prospective active media for directly pumped UV solid-state tunable lasers. Due to the geterovalent activation nature of these crystals, crystal spectroscopic properties as well as their laser efficiency strongly depend on the actual crystal growth conditions. In order to establish the growth-related peculiarities of activator center formation in LiCAF, concerted crystal growth, EPR and site-selective laser spectroscopic studies were performed. For EPR and optical spectroscopic studies, the Gd 3+-“probe” activation of LiCAF crystal was used here instead of much harder to interpret Ce 3+ activation. The obtained results indicate that up to three types of structurally distinct Gd 3+ centers are formed in the LiCAF crystals with their relative concentrations changing depending on the crystal growth conditions. The results are being applied for growing Ce 3+-activated LiCAF crystals with the desired luminescence and laser performance.
Published Version
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