Luminescence Properties and Crystal Growth of Er/Yb Codoped KGd（WO4）2

1 INTRODUCTION In recent years much interest has been shown in the radiation laser around 1.54 μm for optical com- munications, medical and eye-safe light detecting and ranging applications1～3]. Emission in the 1.54 μm range can be achieved with Er3 ion through 4I13/2→4I15/2, but the LD-pumping laser efficiency is commonly low owing to the weak absorption in- tensity of Er3 ion. Yb3 ion is often used as a sen- sitizer ion to increase the absorption light and then transfer the en…

Luminescence Properties and Crystal Growth of Er/Yb Codoped KGd(WO4)2

In this paper, the spectral and luminescence properties of a series of KGd(WO4)2 powder samples codoped with different concentrations of Er3+ and Yb3+ were reported,and the best doping concentrations were found to be l at% Er3+ and 10at% Yb3+ for attaining the strongest intensity.The Er3+/Yb3+ codoped KGd(WO4)2 crystal with good optical quality was grown by the TSSG method and the growth conditions were presented.The unpolarized absorption and emission spectra of the crystal have been measured.The strong absorption peak is at 980 nm with a FWHM of 65 nm, and the emission peak is at 1536 nm when pumped by 976 nm.The fluorescence lifetime of manifold 4I13/2 is estimated to be 4.5 ms at room temperature.Investigations of Er, Yb:KGW crystal have shown it to have necessary combination of properties to get an effective generation of ～ 1.54 μm eye-safe radiation with laser diode pumping.