Fabrication and optical properties of Y2O3-based ceramics with broad emission bandwidth

In this article, we report on the fabrication and optical properties of highly transparent yttria ceramics for lasers active media with broadband gain profile. Laser synthesis method was used to produce Y2O3-based nanopowders doped with 1 mol.% Nd3+ or Yb3+ for these transparent ceramics. The additives of sesquioxides Lu2O3 and Sc2O3 were used along with ZrO2 to disorder the crystalline structure. The porosity and average grain size decrease with these additives and the emission bandwidths of Nd3+ (4F3/2 → 4I11/2) and Yb3+ (2F5/2 → 2F7/2) transitions widen to 40 and 60 nm, respectively. Laser operation with the slope efficiency of 29% was obtained in [(Yb0.01Lu0.24Y0.75)2O3]0.88(ZrO2)0.12 ceramic sample.