Growth and spectroscopic properties of a novel Tm3+-doped YSr3(PO4)3 disordered crystal

Abstract

A novel Tm3+-doped YSr3(PO4)3 (Tm:YSP) crystal with a disordered crystal structure was grown by using the Czochralski pulling method. The single crystal growth, structure, absorption and emission spectra were systematically analyzed. The absorption bandwidth at ∼792 nm was found to be 21 nm, showing that the Tm:YSP crystal was very suitable for commercial laser diodes pumping of AlGaAs. Furthermore, the maximum emission cross section centering at 1835 nm was determined to be 0.86 × 10−20 cm2 with an emission bandwidth of 202 nm, which indicates the promising applications in the fields of ultrafast and tunable lasers. In addition, Spectroscopic parameters, containing Judd – Ofelt intensity, line strengths, radiative transition probabilities, fluorescence branching ratio and radiative lifetime, were analyzed by using the Judd – Ofelt theory. All above results showed that the Tm:YSP crystal with a disordered structure was a potential laser medium in the ⁓ 2 μm region.