光波导激光陶瓷的研究进展与展望

Research Development and Future Prospect of Optical Waveguide Laser Ceramics

未来二极管抽运固体激光器的重要发展方向是实现"三高",即高功率、高效率和高光束质量的激光输出,而热效应将严重影响固体激光器的激光性能。作为极具发展前景的增益介质材料,激光陶瓷具有连续激光输出能力强、热导率高、可以高浓度掺杂等优点,并且容易实现大尺寸、批量化以及复合结构样品制备,而复合结构的增益介质可以有效改善固体激光器的热效应。其中,通过在激光陶瓷中制备光波导结构,可以高效散热、提高抽运效率,获得紧凑且具有高增益的激光系统,该类激光陶瓷有望解决"三高"固体激光器的核心问题。对光波导激光陶瓷的研究进展及其设计原理、制备方法和材料性能做了综述和介绍,最后对光波导激光陶瓷未来的研究做了展望和分析。

One of the primary development directions of future diode-pumped solid-state lasers is to realize the ＂Three highs＂, namely, the laser output with high power, high efficiency, and high beam quality. However, the thermal effects will degrade the performance of laser device severely. As one of the most promising gain medium materials, laser ceramics have the advantages of strong continuous laser output, high thermal conductivity and high concentration doping. Meanwhile, laser ceramics are easy to achieve large size, batch production and composite structure sample preparation, while the gain medium with composite structure can effectively improve the thermal effect of solid-state lasers. The fabrication of optical waveguide structure in laser ceramics ean efficiently dissipate heat, improve pumping efficiency and obtain compact laser system with high gain. This kind of ceramics will hopefully solve the core problem of ＂Three highs＂ solid-state lasers. In this paper, the research development, the design principle, the preparation techniques and the material properties of optical waveguide laser ceramics are reviewed and introduced. In the end, the future research of optical waveguide laser ceramics is prospected and analyzed.