Growth, structure and spectroscopic properties of Er,Pr:YAP laser crystal

Er3+ and Pr3+ co-doped YAP laser crystal with high optical quality was grown successfully by the Czochralski method for the first time. By contrast, an Er3+ single doped YAP laser crystal was also grown. The cell parameters of the two crystals were obtained by the X-ray Rietveld refinement method. The X-ray rocking curves indicate that the as-grown crystals possess excellent crystalline quality. The absorption spectra show that the crystals are suitable to be pumped by 972 nm LD. The NIR and MIR emission spectra, the up-conversion spectra and the fluorescence decay curves were also measured to investigate the influence of Pr3+ ions on the spectroscopic properties. The results indicate the Pr3+ ions acting as the deactivator can decrease efficiently the lifetime of the lower laser level 4I13/2 of the Er3+ ions from 10.72 to 0.489 ms, which would be beneficial to decrease the laser threshold and increase the laser conversion efficiency.