Low-dose O3+ ion-implanted active optical planar waveguides in Nd : YAG crystals: guiding properties and micro-luminescence characterization

Abstract

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, on the active optical planar waveguides in Nd : YAG laser crystals fabricated by O3+ ion implantation at low doses of ∼1014 ions cm−2. The reconstructed refractive index profiles based on the measured dark-mode spectroscopy show that an enhanced refractive index well is created in the near-surface region, forming a non-leaky waveguide structure. With thermal annealing treatment at 260 °C for 90 min, the propagation losses of the waveguides could be reduced to ∼3 dB cm−1 at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. The micro-luminescence investigation reveals that the emission bands of Nd3+ ions are not significantly affected by the waveguide formation processing, which shows promising potentials for efficient waveguide laser operations at near-infrared wavelength bands.