Evaluation of the <sup>4</sup>I<sub>11/2</sub> terminal level lifetime for several neodymium-doped laser crystals and glasses

Abstract

All models of lasing action require knowledge of the physical parameters involved, of which many can be measured or estimated. The value of the terminal level lifetime is an important parameter in modeling many high power laser systems since the terminal level lifetime can have a substantial impact on the extraction efficiency of the system. However, the values of the terminal level lifetimes for a number of important laser materials such as ND:YAG and ND:YLF are not well known. The terminal level lifetime, a measure of the time it takes for the population to drain out of the terminal (lower) lasing level, has values that can range from picoseconds to microseconds depending on the host medium, thus making it difficult to construct one definitive experiment for all materials. Until recently, many of the direct measurements of the terminal level lifetime employed complex energy extraction or gain recovery methods coupled with a numerical model which often resulted in large uncertainties in the measured lifetimes. In this report we demonstrate a novel and more accurate approach which employs a pump-probe technique to measure the terminal level lifetime of 16 neodymium-doped materials. An alternative yet indirect method, which is based on the ``Energy Gap Law,`` is to measure the nonradiative lifetime of another transition which has the same energy gap as the transition of the terminal level lifetime. Employing this simpler approach, we measured the lifetime for 30 neodymium-doped materials. We show for the first time a direct comparison between the two methods and determine that the indirect method can be used to infer the terminal level lifetime within a factor of two for most neodymium-doped glasses and crystals.