Nonlinear optical responses of erbium-doped YAG ceramics

•High quality Er3+:YAG transparent ceramics have been prepared.•Z-scan technique was used to characterize the nonlinear response of the Er3+:YAG ceramics.•The third-order nonlinear optical parameters of Er3+:YAG ceramics have been obtained.

By performing the Z-scan measurements with ultrafast femtosecond laser centered at 800 nm wavelength, we can unambiguously distinguish the real and imaginary part of the third-order optical nonlinearity of the erbium-doped YAG ceramics. The reverse saturable absorption of the erbium-doped YAG ceramics has been observed experimentally, and the nonlinear refractive index of the ceramics is estimated to be about 10−21 m2/W. The experimental results may provide design guidelines for the high power laser design and its applications.