CC BY
23LS-P-10
Synthesis, Microstructure and Spectroscopic Properties of Erbium-Doped (ScxY1-x)2O3 Transparent Ceramics
Roman Maksimov1'2*, Liza Basyrova3, Vladislav Shitov1, Danil Vasin1, Jean-Louis Doualan3,
Patrice Camy3, and Pavel Loiko3
1-Institute of Electrophysics UrB RAS, Amundsen St. 106, 620016 Ekaterinburg, Russia
2-Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Mira St. 19, 620002,
Ekaterinburg, Russia
3-Centre de Recherche sur les Ions, les Matériaux et la Photonique (CIMAP), UMR 6252 CEA-CNRS-ENSICAEN, Université de Caen Normandie, 6 Boulevard Maréchal Juin, 14050 Caen Cedex 4, France
* romanmaksimov@e1. ru
During the past decade, high-power and ultrafast mid-IR laser sources have attracted considerable attention owing to their broad range of applications such as molecular spectroscopy, advanced material processing, atmospheric sensing, laser surgery and biodiagnostics [1]. Solid-state lasers based on erbium ions (Er3+) operating on the 4Iii/2—>4Ii3/2 transition generate mid-IR emission near 2.8 ^m. Among the laser host materials for Er3+ doping, cubic sesquioxides A2O3 (where A = Y, Lu, Sc or their combination) in the form of single-crystals or transparent ceramics appear to be very promising [2]. Compositionally "mixed" sesquioxides such as (ScxYi_x)2O3 are expected to ensure inhomogeneous spectral broadening leading to smooth and broad gain profiles for Er3+ ions. The latter is advantageous for broadband wavelength tuning, as well as generation of ulrashort pulses in the 2.8 ^m spectral range.
In this work, we have fabricated a series of "mixed" (solid-solution) sesquioxide transparent ceramics with a general formula of Ero.i4(ScxYi-x)i.86O3 (x = 0-0.5) using sesquioxide nanopowders synthesized by laser ablation [3]. Various characterization techniques including ICP MS, TEM, BET, XRD and dilatometric analysis were used to reveal the impact of the Sc content on the chemical composition, morphology, average particle size, crystal structure and sintering behavior of the obtained nanopowders. The fabrication process of ceramic samples is schematically shown in Fig. 1. The synthesized nanopowders with various Sc/Y ratios were uniaxially pressed into cylindrical compacts and then sintered at 1650-1800 °C under vacuum followed by calcination in air to eliminate oxygen vacancies.
The fabricated ceramics are of single-phase nature (cubic class, C-type or bixbyite structure). The microstructure of ceramics, the grain size distribution and the content of scattering centers were studied. The absorption and emission cross-section spectra of Er3+ ions were determined. The luminescence lifetimes of the 4In/2 and 4I13/2 Er3+ states were measured. The effect of Sc content on the microstructure and spectroscopic properties of ceramics was investigated.
The developed Er:(Sc,Y)2O3 transparent ceramics are promising as gain media of continuous-wave and mode-locked mid-IR lasers.
The reported study was funded by RFBR (Russia) according to the research project No. 21-5315014 and CNRS (France) according to the project IEA No. 00432.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing the fabrication process of Er3+-doped (ScxY1.x)2O3 transparent ceramics.
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