Development of solid state laser material using ceramic yttria

Abstract

High power solid state tunable lasers have played an important role in providing the technology necessary for active remote sensing and would be very useful for space exploration. Many recent studies on diode-pumped solid state lasers have focused on polycrystalline ceramic lasers. We present our initial results on the material, optical, and spectroscopic properties of a solid-state ceramic laser material using neodymium doped Yttria (Nd:Y2O3). Using a proprietary scalable production method, spherical non agglomerated and monodisperse ceramic powders of Nd:Y2O3 are made that can be used to fabricate polycrystalline ceramic material disks with sintered grain size in a suitable range. Initially, we produced translucent material with good emission properties. In further studies we have successfully prepared transparent Nd:Yttria ceramic material. Polycrystalline ceramic lasers have enormous potential commercial applications, which include remote sensing, chemical detection and space exploration research. Furthermore, the cost to produce ceramic laser materials is potentially much lower than that for single crystal materials because of the shorter time it takes to fabricate the material and also because of the possibility of mass production. The polycrystalline ceramic material that we have produced will be characterized for its suitability as a diode pumped solid state laser. Different laser designs will be discussed including end-pumping schemes and the thin-disk laser configuration.