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Applied Physics Letters

Saturation of 1.064 μm absorption in Cr,Ca:Y3Al5O12 crystals

Hergen Eilers, K.R. Hoffman, William M. Dennis, Stuart M. Jacobsen, William M. Yen

Published Dec 21, 1992• 150 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Saturation absorption experiments are conducted on the title compound at 1.064 μm with laser light propagating along both the [001] and [111] crystallographic axes. Rotation of the crystals about these axes during the experiments reveals that the transmission of the polarized 1.064 μm radiation is highly anisotropic in the saturation regime. The details of the anisotropy and saturation curves are explained using a simple model of subsets of optical centers along with a relevant set of rate equations. The ground and excited-state absorption cross sections at 1.064 μm are calculated to be σgs=5.7(±2)×10−18 cm2 and σes=8(±2)×10−19 cm2, respectively, and the optimum crystallographic orientation for utilization in optical devices is discussed.

DOI
10.1063/1.108030

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Saturation absorption experiments are conducted on the title compound at 1.064 μm with laser light propagating along both the [001] and [111] crystallographic axes. Rotation of the crystals about these axes during the experiments reveals that the transmission of the polarized 1.064 μm radiation is highly anisotropic in the saturation regime. The details of the anisotropy and saturation curves are explained using a simple model of subsets of optical centers along with a relevant set of rate equations. The ground and excited-state absorption cross sections at 1.064 μm are calculated to be σgs=5.7(±2)×10−18 cm2 and σes=8(±2)×10−19 cm2, respectively, and the optimum crystallographic orientation for utilization in optical devices is discussed.
An investigation was made of the polarisation characteristics of the nonlinear absorption of λ = 1.055 μm radiation in a V 3+ : YAG crystal at the saturation stage. The duration of a pulse propagating in the crystal was considerably less than the lifetime of an excited state of the V 3+ impurity centres. A comparison of the experimental results with those of a theoretical calculation showed that the best description was provided by a phenomenological model in which resonant absorption in a crystal is attributed to three linear dipoles oriented along the main crystallographic axes of YAG.
We describe a systematic, rigorous procedure for the determination of the optical absorption saturation parameters for Cr4+:YAG and Cr4+:forsterite crystals at 1064 nm. A rate-equation approach was used to analyze the cw and pulsed transmission data of several crystals by accounting for the transverse as well as longitudinal variation of the beam intensity, saturation effects, and excited-state absorption. Use of an iterative procedure whereby the cw and pulsed data were simultaneously analyzed led to a considerable reduction in the error for the determination of cross sections. The average value of the absorption cross section sigmaa and the normalized excited-state absorption cross section fp=sigmaesa/sigmaa were determined to be 6.13×10−19 cm2 and 0.45, respectively, for Cr4+:forsterite and 19.6×10−19 cm2 and 0.06, respectively, for Cr4+:YAG. Detailed comparison was also made with previous saturation measurements in the literature. Our results further show that lumped models based on the thin-length approximation should be used with caution in the determination of cross sections, especially when the pump beam is tightly focused inside the absorber.
We studied both experimentally and theoretically the transmission and polarization characteristics of a Cr4+ : YAG saturable absorber crystal as a function of the intensity and polarization state of an incident laser beam. We found that a birefringent absorption behaviour is induced and we show that the experimental results are well described by a full numerical model which includes excited-state absorption as well as a ground-state cross-absorption term. By using pump-probe measurements we show that a finite cross-saturation of the absorption is achieved along the crystal axes orthogonal to the polarization of the optical radiation. No induced refractive index birefringence is observed.
A mathematical model describing the dynamic emission of intracavity polarized isotropic Cr 4+ :YAG solid--state saturable absorber was developed.This model considers double pumping laser pulses to simulate the actions of Cr 4+ :YAG as a dual Q-switched crystal (1.06 µm) and lasing medium (1.4 µm).The model describes the time evolution of interaction between the pumping laser pulse, partial polarizer and the polarized saturable absorber.The analysis of the polarization process is based on the assumption that at each moment of lasing evolution, the state of polarization represented by an eigenstate corresponds to the lowest radiation losses state.The model offers a simple mechanism for studying the kinetics of the pulsed lasers and the influence of the variations of the pumping laser power and nonlinear anisotropy parameter on the characteristics of the output laser pulses 1.06 µm and 1.4 µm.The angular rotation of the passive switch Cr 4+ :YAG reveals that the transmission of the polarized 1.06 µm laser radiation is strongly anisotropic in the saturation regime.The suggested model estimates the transmission of pumping laser density of the polarized light 1.06 µm radiation as a function of nonlinear anisotropy parameter, temporal behavior of the relative population inversion of Nd-laser, population inversion of the different polarized levels of Cr 4+ :YAG pulsed laser and the output laser pulse densities under impact of different values of the nonlinear anisotropy which is due to the self-induced anisotropy of its saturated absorption.
An experimental study of saturable absorption and excited-state absorption (ESA) in several inorganic saturable absorbers, Cr/sup 4+/:YAG, Cr/sup 4+/:GGG, and Cr/sup 4+/:YSGG, is presented. We provide the theoretical background of absorption characteristics in saturable absorbers that exhibit ESA, with some new results: approximate analytical solutions are proposed for the optical transmission in the case of a slow absorber, and for various light intensity conditions of spatially or temporally Gaussian beams in fast and slow absorbers. Experimentally, partial bleaching of the first excited state itself could be observed in Cr/sup 4+/:YAG at /spl lambda/=1064 nm, yielding the higher excited-state lifetime as /spl tau/*=(0.55/spl plusmn/0.1) ns. The regular transmission bleaching curve was measured in Cr/sup 4+/:GGG, for the first time in this material, yielding /spl sigma//sub ga/=(58/spl plusmn/5)/spl times/10/sup -1/ cm/sup 2/, and /spl sigma/e/sub s/=(13/spl plusmn/2)/spl times/10/sup -19/ cm/sup 2/ at /spl lambda/=1064 nm, ESA spectra were measured for the three materials between /spl sim/700 and 900 nm. All three exhibit crossing between saturable absorption at longer wavelengths and inverse saturable absorption at shorter wavelengths.