Abstract

Er-doped lasers operating near 1.5 µm are useful for numerous applications (LIDAR, optical fiber communication, eye safe range finder). The development of high power laser diodes lasing around 0.98 pm allowed the pumping of the Er³⁺ ions through Yb³⁺, which strongly absorbs in that spectral range. Ca₂Al₂SiO₇ (CAS), Ca₂Ga₂SiO₇ (CGS) and SrLaGa₃O₇ (SLG) with melilite-type structure are good matrices for rare earth ions and a structural disorder around the RE³⁺ involves broad absorption and fluorescence bands.¹ In this study, two series of crystals with good optical quality are prepared by the floating zone method at various RE³⁺ concentrations to perform spectroscopy and by the Czochralski process to obtain large laser rods.

© 1994 IEEE