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Optics Express

Optical cooling in Er^3+:KPb_2Cl_5

Nicholas J. Condon, Steven R. Bowman, Shawn P. O'Connor, Richard S. Quimby, Carl E. Mungan

Published Mar 23, 2009• 46 citations
Publisher

Abstract

For the first time, optical cooling has been observed in the (4)I(13/2) excited state of erbium(III), using the low phonon energy host materal, potassium lead chloride (KPb(2)Cl(2)). Cooling was observed when samples were pumped at wavelengths longer than 1557 nm, 17 nm longer than the mean fluorescence wavelength of 1540 nm, which implies a nonradiative heat load of 1.1% for the (4)I(13/2)-->(4)I(15/2) transition. When pumped at 1568 nm, the total cooling efficiency was 0.38% of the absorbed power. These results highlight the potential of Er(3+):KPb(2)Cl(5) as a material for lasers operating in an eye safe spectral region.

DOI
10.1364/oe.17.005466

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For the first time, optical cooling has been observed in the (4)I(13/2) excited state of erbium(III), using the low phonon energy host materal, potassium lead chloride (KPb(2)Cl(2)). Cooling was observed when samples were pumped at wavelengths longer than 1557 nm, 17 nm longer than the mean fluorescence wavelength of 1540 nm, which implies a nonradiative heat load of 1.1% for the (4)I(13/2)-->(4)I(15/2) transition. When pumped at 1568 nm, the total cooling efficiency was 0.38% of the absorbed power. These results highlight the potential of Er(3+):KPb(2)Cl(5) as a material for lasers operating in an eye safe spectral region.
The potential of three erbium based solids hosts has been investigated for laser cooling. Absorption and emission spectra have been studied for the low lying IR transitions of erbium that are relevant to recent reports of cooling using the 4I15/2-4I9/2 and4I15/2 -4I13/2 transitions. Experimental studies have been performed for erbium in three hosts; ZBLAN glass and KPb2Cl5 and Cs2NaYCl6 crystals. In order to estimate the efficiencies of cooling, theoretical calculations have been performed for the cubic Elpasolite (Cs2NaYCl6 ) crystal. These calculations also provide a first principle insight into the cooling efficiency for non-cubic and glassy hosts where such calculations are not possible.
The recent achievements devoted to cooling of solids with a laser are presented in this paper. We discuss the latest results of traditional laser cooling of solids based on rare earth ions and new techniques based on colloidal lead-salt quantum dots doped in a glass host, laser cooling in Tm3+-doped oxy-fluoride glass ceramic. Relatively short (microsecond) lifetime of the excited level of the PbSe QDs compared to the millisecond lifetime of the excited level of RE ions allows an acceleration of the cooling process and provides an opportunity to use new materials with higher phonon energy as hosts, which are normally considered unsuitable for cooling with RE ions. Another new approach to the laser cooling problem based on super-radiance has been considered in this paper. The advantages of optical refrigeration with rare earth doped semiconductors, in which not only optically active electrons of the 4f shell but the valence and conduction bands of the host material are involved in cooling cycle is discussed. It is shown that involving the valence and conduction bands of the host in the cooling cycle allows the pump wavelength to be shorter than mean fluorescence wavelength. Raman laser cooling of solids as well as observation of spontaneous Brillouin cooling have been presented.
This study presents a resonantly-pumped laser operation based on the inter-Stark transitions between the3F3and3H4multiplets of Pr3+ion. In this investigation, resonantly-pumped (at ~1547 nm), low quantum defect, laser action is achieved at 1676.5 nm from a Pr3+-doped RbPb2Cl5(RPC), low-phonon single crystal, which has recently been reported to lase at 2.5 mum. Hence, this type of laser holds promise for attaining a more efficient, resonantly-pumped, ultra-low quantum defect, eye-safe laser based on this gain medium. Furthermore, much lower nonradiative losses are expected, due to a very low phonon energy found in the Pr3+-doped material.
Laser cooling of solids has many potential applications in communications, surveillance and medical science, etc. This paper reviews our recent work on laser refrigeration of solids in stoichiometric hexa-chloroelpasolite crystals with high concentrations of erbium. Our results are one to two orders of magnitude improvements over any previously reported cooling in erbium based materials. We have seen bulk crystal cooling by as low as 6 degrees Celsius below room temperature in elpasolite crystals. The high efficiency and low temperatures of cooling have been attributed to a high concentration of erbium, as high as 80% by formula, in the crystal. This cooling has been achieved by pumping near the IR transition at 870 nm which is the weakest transition of erbium. We report cooling in the 1.5 micron transition as well, using a diode laser to pump this transition. The result is cooling by only a fraction of a degree from room temperature.
We present a theoretical scheme for laser cooling of rare-earth-doped solids with optical superradiance (SR), which is the coherent, sharply directed spontaneous emission of photons by a system of laser-excited rare-earth ions in the solid-state host (glass or crystal). We consider an Yb+{}^{+}+-doped ZnF4{}_{4}4​-BaF2{}_{2}2​-LaF3{}_{3}3​-AlF3{}_{3}3​-NaF (ZBLAN) sample pumped at a wavelength 1015 nm, with a rectangular pulsed source with a power of \ensuremath{\sim}433 W and a duration of 10 ns. The intensity of the SR is proportional to the square of the number of excited ions. This unique feature of SR permits an increase in the rate of the cooling process in comparison with the traditional laser cooling of the rare-earth-doped solids with anti-Stokes spontaneous incoherent radiation (fluorescence). This scheme overcomes the limitation of using only low phonon energy glasses for laser cooling.
A 250 μm diameter fibre of ytterbium-doped ZBLAN was cooled by 13 K from room temperature. The cooling was performed in vacuum to limit the thermal load on the fibre. 0.85 W of laser light at 1015 nm was coupled into the fibre. The ytterbium ions absorbed this light, and the excited atoms thermalized phononically and on average emitted light at a wavelength of 996 nm. Since the quantum efficiency of the transition was high, this resulted in a net loss of energy from the glass, producing net bulk cooling.