Optical properties of transparent cobalt-containing magnesium aluminosilicate glass-ceramics doped with gallium oxide for saturable absorbers

Abstract

Transparent glass-ceramic materials based on glasses of the MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–TiO2 system doped with CoO and Ga2O3 are synthesized. The secondary heat treatment of the initial glasses at temperatures of 800–950°C leads to precipitation of nanosized (6–7 nm) crystals of magnesium aluminogallium spinel doped with cobalt ions and magnesium aluminotitanate solid solutions. The optical absorption spectra of the initial glass and glass-ceramic materials are studied. It is shown that the absorption band caused by the 4A2(4F)→ 4T1(4F) transitions of tetrahedrally coordinated Co2+ ions in glass-ceramics with nanosized Co:Mg(Al,Ga)2O4 crystals is shifted to longer wavelengths (up to ~1.67 µm) compared to the position of this band in materials with Co:MgAl2O4 crystals. The synthesized glass-ceramics are characterized by a relatively low saturation fluence FS ~ 0.5 ± 0.1 J/cm2 at a wavelength of 1.54 µm, as well as by a high radiation resistance to nanosecond laser pulses, which is no lower than ~15 ± 2 J/cm2. This explains their attractiveness as materials for saturable absorbers for erbium lasers emitting in the spectral range 1.5–1.7 µm.