Optimization of the gain in Yb^(3+)-doped cubic laser crystals of 99.99% purity

This was an outlook on the prediction of the infrared laser potentiality from concentration dependences of the 2F5/2 experimental decay time in Yb3＋-doped solid-state crystals mainly on cubic crystals with 99.99% purity which could be extended to laser ceramics of the same composition.

J-mixing Effect of the Crystal-field on the Spectroscopic Characteristics of Rare-earth Doped Laser Crystals

By using the re-derived formulae for both line-strength of electricdipole transition and simple J-mixing coefficients within the 4f shell in a rare-earthion, the spectroscopic properties of the luminescent material Eu3+ =Y2O3 and laser crystals Tb3+:=YAlO3 and Nd3+:YVO4, are investigated in detail. On the basis of three fitting Ω parameters and the effective reduced matrix elements, the spectral linestrengths, spontaneous emission probabilities, fluorescent branching ratios and lifetimeare calculated. The better agreement between theoretical results and experimental dataindicates the importance of J-mixing in the spectroscopic study of laser crystals.

Progress of 1.5～1.6 μm Laser Crystals

Eye-safe 1.5～1.6 μm lasers have important applications in optical fiber communication, medicine, laser-range-finding, lidar, etc. Er^3＋ and Yb^3＋ co-doped crystal pumped by diode laser around 976 nm is an attractive method for obtaining 1.5～1.6 μm laser in compact device with high output beam quality. In this paper, the recent research and progress of several important Er^3＋ and Yb^3＋ co-doped laser crystals at 1.5～1.6 μm in authors’ lab are reported.

Deformation and removal of semiconductor and laser single crystals at extremely small scales

Semiconductor and laser single crystals are usually brittle and hard,which need to be ground to have satisfactory surface integrity and dimensional precision prior to their applications.Improvement of the surface integrity of a ground crystal can shorten the time of a subsequent polishing process,thus reducing the manufacturing cost.The development of cost-effective grinding technologies for those crystals requires an in-depth understanding of their deformation and removal mechanisms.As a result,a great deal of research efforts were directed towards studying this topic in the past two or three decades.In this review,we aimed to summarize the deformation and removal characteristics of representative semiconductor and laser single crystals in accordance with the scale of mechanical loading,especially at extremely small scales.Their removal mechanisms were critically examined based on the evidence obtained from highresolution TEM analyses.The relationships between machining conditions and removal behaviors were discussed to provide a guidance for further advancing of the grinding technologies for those crystals.

Recent Developments in Functional Crystals in China

Functional crystals are the basic materials for the development of modern science and technology and are playing key roles in the modern information era. In this paper, we review functional crystals in China, including research history, significant achievements, and important applications by highlighting the most recent progress in research. Challenges for the development of functional materials are discussed and possible directions for development are proposed by focusing on potential strengths of these materials.

High efficiency sub-nanosecond electro-optical Q-switched laser operating at kilohertz repetition frequency

Based on a theoretical model of Q-switched laser with the influences of the driving signal sent to the Pockels cell and the doping concentration of the gain medium taken into account,a method of achieving high energy sub-nanosecond Q-switched lasers is proposed and verified in experiment.When a Nd:YVO4 crystal with a doping concentration of 0.7 at.%is used as a gain medium and a driving signal with the optimal high-level voltage is applied to the Pockels cell,a stable single-transverse-mode electro-optical Q-switched laser with a pulse width of 0.77 ns and a pulse energy of 1.04 mJ operating at the pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz is achieved.The precise tuning of the pulse width is also demonstrated.

Pressure Effects on Spectra of Tunable Laser Crystal GSGG：Cr^3＋ I：Theory

A theory for shifts of energy spectra due to electron-phonon interaction (EPI) has been developed. Both the temperature-independent contributions and the temperature-dependent ones of acoustic branches and optical branches have been derived. It is found that the temperature-independent contributions are very important, especially at low temperature. The total pressure-induced shift (PS) of a level (or spectral line or band) is the algebraic sum of its PS without EPI and its PS due to EPI. By means of both the theory for shifts of energy spectra due to EPI and the theory for PS of energy spectra, the total PS of R1 line of tunable laser crystal GSGG:Cr3+ at 70 K as well as the ones of its R1 line, R2 line and U band at 300 K will be successfully calculated and explained in this series of papers.

Nickel-disilicide-assisted excimer laser crystallization of amorphous silicon

Polycrystalline silicon （poly-Si） thin film has been prepared by means of nickel-disilicide （NiSi2） assisted excimer laser crystallization （ELC）. The process to prepare a sample includes two steps. One step consists of the formation of NiSi2 precipitates by heat-treating the dehydrogenated amorphous silicon （a-Si） coated with a thin layer of Ni. And the other step consists of the formation of poly-Si grains by means of ELC. According to the test results of scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, another grain growth model named two-interface grain growth has been proposed to contrast with the conventional Ni-metal-induced lateral crystallization （Ni-MILC） model and the ELC model. That is, an additional grain growth interface other than that in conventional ELC is formed, which consists of NiSi2 precipitates and a-Si. The processes for grain growth according to various excimer laser energy densities delivered to the a-Si film have been discussed. It is discovered that grains with needle shape and most of a uniform orientation are formed which grow up with NiSi2 precipitates as seeds. The reason for the formation of such grains which are different from that of Ni-MILC without migration of Ni atoms is not clear. Our model and analysis point out a method to prepare grains with needle shape and mostly of a uniform orientation. If such grains are utilized to make thin-film transistor, its characteristics may be improved.

Growth of Yb∶YAB Crystal and Its Laser Performance

Single crystal of Yb x Y 1- x Al 3(BO 3) 4 (Yb∶YAB) was grown by using flux method based on the potassium trimolybdate. 160 mW efficient continuous wave green output was obtained from a fibre coupled 976 nm laser diode. The conversion efficiency is larger than 11 3%, and the electrical input green conversion efficiency is 3 9%. Tunable green output from 513 0 to 545 8 nm is also demonstrated with a quartz birefringent filter. By enhancing the incident pump power, 1 1 W cw green output can be reached.

Acousto-Optically Q-Switched Operation of Yb:CNGG Disordered Crystal Laser

We report the repetitively Q-switched laser operation of the Yb-doped calcium niobium gallium garnet disordered garnet crystal, achieved with an acousto-optic modulator in a compact plano-concave resonator that is endpumped by a 935-nm diode laser. An average output power of 1.96 W is produced at pulse repetition rate of50 k Hz at emission wavelengths around 1035 nm, with a slope efficiency of 16%. The highest pulse energy of 269 μJ is generated at pulse repetition rate of 1 k Hz, with pulse width 12.1 ns and peak power 20.53 kW.

Passively Mode-Locked Femtosecond Disordered Crystal Laser with Nd:CGA as Gain Medium

We present a laser-diode-pumped passively mode-locked femtosecond disordered crystal laser by using Nd：CaGdAI04 （Nd：CGA） as the gain medium. With a pair of SF6 prisms to control the dispersion compensation, laser pulses as short as 850fs at 1079nm are obtained with a repetition rate of 124.6 MHz. The measured threshold pump power is 1.45 W. A maximum average output power of 122mW is obtained under the pump power of 5.9 W. These results show that Nd：CGA could be a promising laser medium for generating femtosecond ultrashort pulse at about 1 μm.

Laser synthesis and functionalization of nanostructures

This article summarizes work at the Laser Thermal Laboratory and discusses related studies on the laser synthesis and functionalization of semiconductor nanostructures and two-dimensional(2D)semiconductor materials.Research has been carried out on the laser-induced crystallization of thin films and nanostructures.The in situ transmission electron microscopy(TEM)monitoring of the crystallization of amorphous precursors in nanodomains is discussed herein.The directed assembly of silicon nanoparticles and the modulation of their optical properties by phase switching is presented.The vapor-liquid-solid mechanism has been adopted as a bottom-up approach in the synthesis of semiconducting nanowires(NWs).In contrast to furnace heating methods,laser irradiation offers high spatial selectivity and precise control of the heating mechanism in the time domain.These attributes enabled the investigation of NW nucleation and the early stage of nanostructure growth.Site-and shape-selective,on-demand direct integration of oriented NWs was accomplished.Growth of discrete silicon NWs with nanoscale location selectivity by employing near-field laser illumination is also reported herein.Tuning the properties of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDCs)by modulating the free carrier type,density,and composition can offer an exciting new pathway to various practical nanoscale electronics.In situ Raman probing of laser-induced processing of TMDC flakes was conducted in a TEM instrument.

Self-limiting laser crystallization and direct writing of 2D materials

Direct growth and patterning of atomically thin two-dimensional(2D)materials on various substrates are essential steps towards enabling their potential for use in the next generation of electronic and optoelectronic devices.The conventional gas-phase growth techniques,however,are not compatible with direct patterning processes.Similarly,the condensed-phase methods,based on metal oxide deposition and chalcogenization processes,require lengthy processing times and high temperatures.Here,a novel self-limiting laser crystallization process for direct crystallization and patterning of 2D materials is demonstrated.It takes advantage of significant differences between the optical properties of the amorphous and crystalline phases.Pulsed laser deposition is used to deposit a thin layer of stoichiometric amorphous molybdenum disulfide(MoS2)film(∼3 nm)onto the fused silica substrates.A tunable nanosecond infrared(IR)laser(1064 nm)is then employed to couple a precise amount of power and number of pulses into the amorphous materials for controlled crystallization and direct writing processes.The IR laser interaction with the amorphous layer results in fast heating,crystallization,and/or evaporation of the materials within a narrow processing window.However,reduction of the midgap and defect states in the as crystallized layers decreases the laser coupling efficiency leading to higher tolerance to process parameters.The deliberate design of such laser 2D material interactions allows the selflimiting crystallization phenomena to occur with increased quality and a much broader processing window.This unique laser processing approach allows high-quality crystallization,direct writing,patterning,and the integration of various 2D materials into future functional devices.

Configuration optimization of laser guide stars and wavefront correctors for multi-conjugation adaptive optics

Multi-conjugation adaptive optics（MCAOs） have been investigated and used in the large aperture optical telescopes for high-resolution imaging with large field of view（FOV）.The atmospheric tomographic phase reconstruction and projection of three-dimensional turbulence volume onto wavefront correctors,such as deformable mirrors（DMs） or liquid crystal wavefront correctors（LCWCs）,is a very important step in the data processing of an MCAO＇s controller.In this paper,a method according to the wavefront reconstruction performance of MCAO is presented to evaluate the optimized configuration of multi laser guide stars（LGSs） and the reasonable conjugation heights of LCWCs.Analytical formulations are derived for the different configurations and are used to generate optimized parameters for MCAO.Several examples are given to demonstrate our LGSs configuration optimization method.Compared with traditional methods,our method has minimum wavefront tomographic error,which will be helpful to get higher imaging resolution at large FOV in MCAO.

Theoretical Studies of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Parameters for Cr^4＋ Ions in Ca2GeO4 Crystals

The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) parameters (zero-Geld splitting Dand g factors g_‖, g_⊥) of Cr~(4+) ions in Ca_2 GeO_4 crystals have been calculated from thecomplete high-order perturbation formulas of EPR parameters for a 3d~2 ion in trigonal MX_4clusters. In these formulas, in addition to the contributions to EPR parameters from the widely usedcrystal-field (CF) mechanism, the contributions from the charge-transfer (CT) mechanism (which areoften neglected) are included. From the calculations, it is found that for the high valence state3d~n ions in crystals, the reasonable explanation of EPR parameters (in particular, the g factors)should take both the CF and CT mechanisms into account.

UV–visible spectral characterization and density functional theory simulation analysis on laser-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films

The effect of laser energy density on the crystallization of hydrogenated intrinsic amorphous silicon （a-Si：H） thin films was studied both theoretically and experimentally. The thin films were irritated by a frequency-doubled （λ= 532 nm） Nd：YAG pulsed nanosecond laser. An effective density functional theory model was built to reveal the variation of bandgap energy influenced by thermal stress after laser irradiation. Experimental results establish correlation between the thermal stress and the shift of transverse optical peak in Raman spectroscopy and suggest that the relatively greater shift of the transverse optical （TO） peak can produce higher stress. The highest crystalline fraction （84.5%） is obtained in the optimized laser energy density （1000 mJ/cm2） with a considerable stress release. The absorption edge energy measured by the UV- visible spectra is in fairly good agreement with the bandgap energy in the density functional theory （DFT） simulation.

Pressure Effects on Spectra of Tunable Laser Crystal GSGG:Cr3+ II: Energy Spectra at Normal Pressure, Low and Room Temperatures

With the strong-field scheme and trigonal bases, the complete d3 energy matrix in a trigonally distorted cubic-field has been constructed. By diagonalizing this matrix, the normal-pressure energy spectra and wavefunctions of GSGG:Cr3+ at 70 K and 300 K have been calculated without the electron-phonon interaction (EPI), respectively. Further, the contributions to energy spectra from EPI at two temperatures have also been calculated, where temperature-independent terms of EPI are found to be dominant. The sum of aforementioned two parts gives rise to the total energy spectrum. The calculated results are in good agreement with all the optical-spectral experimental data and the experimental results of and . It is found that the contribution from EPI to R1 line of GSGG:Cr3+ with taking into account spin-orbit interaction (Hso) and trigonal field (Vtrig) is much larger than the one with neglecting Hso and Vtrig, and accordingly it is essential for the calculation of the EPI effect to take first into account Hso and Vtrig. The admixture of base-wavefunctions,and , the average energy separation and their variations with temperature have been calculated and discussed.

Pressure Effects on Spectra of Tunable Laser Crystal GSGG： Cr^3＋ IV： Pressure—Induced Shifts of R1 Line, R2 Line, and U Band at 300 K

By means of both a theory for pressure-induced shifts (PS) of energy spectra and a theory for shifts of energy spectra due to electron-phonon interaction (EPI), the 'pure electronic' PS and the PS due to EPI of R1 line, R2 line, and U band of GSGG:Cr3+ at 300 K have been calculated, respectively. The calculated results are in good agreement with all the experimental data. Their physical origins have also been explained. It is found that the mixing-degree of and base-wavefunctions in the wavefunctions of R1 level of GSGG:Cr3+ at 300 K is remarkable under normal pressure, and the mixing-degree rapidly decreases with increasing pressure. The change of the mixing-degree with pressure plays a key role not only for the 'pure electronic' PS of R1 line and R2 line but also the PS of R1 line and R2 line due to EPI. The pressure-dependent behaviors of the 'pure electronic' PS of R1 line (or R2 line) and the PS of R1 line (or R2 line) due to EPI are quite different. It is the combined effect of them that gives rise to the total PS of R1 line (or R2 line). In the range of about 15 kbar ~ 45 kbar, the mergence and/or order-reversal between levels and levels take place, which cause the fluctuation of the rate of PS for with pressure. At 300 K, both the temperature-dependent contribution to R1 line (or R2 line or U band) from EPI and the temperature-independent one are important.

Pressure Effects on Spectra of Tunable Laser Crystal GSGG:Cr3+ III: Pressure-Induced Shift of R1 Line at 70 K

By means of both a theory for pressure-induced shifts (PS) of energy spectra and a theory for shifts of energy spectra due to electron-phonon interaction (EPI), the 'pure electronic' PS and the PS due to EPI of R1 line of GSGG:Cr3+ at 70 K have been calculated, respectively. Their physical origins have been revealed. It is found that the admixture of and base-wavefunctions in the wavefunctions of R1 level of GSGG:Cr3+ at 70 K is remarkable under the normal pressure, and the degree of the admixture rapidly decreases with increasing pressure. The change of the degree of the admixture with the pressure plays a key role for not only the pure electronic PS of R1 line but also the PS of R1 line due to EPI. The detailed calculations and analyses show that the pressure-dependent behaviors of the pure electronic PS of R1 line and the PS of R1 line due to EPI are quite different. It is the combined effect of them that gives rise to the total PS of R1 line, which has satisfactorily explained the experimental data (including a reversal of PS of R1 line). In contributions to PS of R1 line due to EPI at 70 K, the temperature-independent contribution is much larger than the temperature-dependent contribution. The former results from the interaction between the zero-point vibration of the lattice and localized electronic state.

Single,composite,and ceramic Nd:YAG 946-nm lasers

Single, composite crystal and ceramic continuous wave （CW） 946-nm Nd：YAG lasers are demonstrated, respectively. The ceramic laser behaves better than the crystal laser. With 5-mm long ceramic, a CW output power of 1.46 W is generated with an optical conversion efficiency of 13.9%, while the slope efficiency is 17.9%. The optimal ceramic length for a 946- nm laser is also calculated.