Polycrystalline ceramic laser materials are gaining importance in the development of novel diode-pumped solid-state
lasers. Compared to single-crystals, ceramic laser materials offer advantages in terms of ease of fabrication, shape, size,
and control of dopant concentrations. Recently, we have developed Neodymium doped Yttria (Nd:Y2O3) as a solid-state
ceramic laser material. A scalable production method was utilized to make spherical non agglomerated and
monodisperse metastable ceramic powders of compositions that were used to fabricate polycrystalline ceramic material
components. This processing technique allowed for higher doping concentrations without the segregation problems that
are normally encountered in single crystalline growth. We have successfully fabricated undoped and Neodymium doped
Yttria material up to 2" in diameter, Ytterbium doped Yttria, and erbium doped Yttria. We are also in the process of
developing other sesquioxides such as scandium Oxide (Sc2O3) and Lutesium Oxide (Lu2O3) doped with Ytterbium,
erbium and thulium dopants. In this paper, we present our initial results on the material, optical, and spectroscopic
properties of the doped and undoped sesquioxide materials. Polycrystalline ceramic lasers have enormous potential
applications including remote sensing, chem.-bio detection, and space exploration research. It is also potentially much
less expensive to produce ceramic laser materials compared to their single crystalline counterparts because of the shorter
fabrication time and the potential for mass production in large sizes.
In this paper, recent progress made towards the development of transparent Nd doped ceramic yttria is presented.
Using 99.99% pure raw materials and with improved material processing techniques, Nd doped ceramic yttria test
samples greater than 99% transmission at 2000nm wavelength and bandedge <250nm have been produced. The test
samples were >1" x 1" x 10mm in dimensions. Nd ions were successfully incorporated into undoped ceramic yttria
material through diffusion process.
High power solid state tunable lasers have played an important role in providing the technology necessary for active remote sensing and would be very useful for space exploration. Many recent studies on diode-pumped solid state lasers have focused on polycrystalline ceramic lasers. We present our initial results on the material, optical, and spectroscopic properties of a solid-state ceramic laser material using neodymium doped Yttria (Nd:Y2O3). Using a proprietary scalable production method, spherical non agglomerated and monodisperse ceramic powders of Nd:Y2O3 are made that can be used to fabricate polycrystalline ceramic material disks with sintered grain size in a suitable range. Initially, we produced translucent material with good emission properties. In further studies we have successfully prepared transparent Nd:Yttria ceramic material. Polycrystalline ceramic lasers have enormous potential commercial applications, which include remote sensing, chemical detection and space exploration research. Furthermore, the cost to produce ceramic laser materials is potentially much lower than that for single crystal materials because of the shorter time it takes to fabricate the material and also because of the possibility of mass production. The polycrystalline ceramic material that we have produced will be characterized for its suitability as a diode pumped solid state laser. Different laser designs will be discussed including end-pumping schemes and the thin-disk laser configuration.
New materials with improved mechanical properties and high optical transmission in the full 3-5 micron MWIR region wavelength are required. Commercially available polycrystalline transparent Yttria, with >100 micron average grain size, does not perform satisfactorily in demanding applications because of its modest strength. One way to improve strength is to develop an ultra-fine grained material with acceptable optical transmission properties. To realize fine grains it is necessary to use other phases to inhibit grain growth during fabrication. A promising processing method comprises: (a) synthesis of an extended metastable solid solution by plasma melting and quenching, and (b) consolidation of the metastable ceramic powder to form dense submicron-grained (<1 micron) composites. Two ceramic composites containing 20 and 50 vol% of second phase are evaluated in this study. Optical transmission, hardness, and indentation fracture toughness are measured and correlated with structure.
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