Dependence of optical and thermal properties on concentration and temperature for Yb:YAG laser ceramics

This paper reports the influence of temperature and doping concentration on optical and thermal properties of Yb:YAG transparent ceramics. The rise of Yb doping concentration causes the gradual red-shift of absorption edge, and both Yb3+absorption coefficient and fluorescence lifetime increases. For 5% Yb:YAG ceramic, as temperature increases from 100 K to room temperature, the fluorescence intensity decreases with broadening of each peak. By using a 940 nm diode laser as the pumping source, we obtained a high slope efficiency of 49% for 5%Yb:YAG ceramics, compared with 41% for 10%Yb:YAG ceramic.