Lasing of surface-polished polycrystalline Ho: YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) fiber.

A polycrystalline 1.5% Ho: YAG fiber with a diameter of 31 µm was prepared. Surface roughness from grain boundary grooving was reduced by polishing, which decreased the fiber scattering coefficient from 76 m to 35 m.

Optical properties of lithium terbium fluoride and implications for performance in high power lasers.

LiTbF4 has the potential to replace traditional magneto-optic garnet materials as a Faraday rotator in high power laser systems due to its high Verdet constant. New measurements are reported of the ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices of LiTbF4 as functions of wavelength and temperature, respectively, as well as their corresponding Sellmeier expressions. Consequently, the Verdet coefficient was calculated and plotted as a function of wavelength and temperature.

Temperature-dependent Sellmeier equations for rare-earth sesquioxides.

High-power lasers are making increasing demands on laser hosts especially in the area of thermal management. Traditional hosts, such as YAG, are unsuitable for many high-power applications and therefore, new hosts are being developed including rare-earth sesquioxides. We report new measurements of the refractive indices of these materials as functions of wavelength and temperature, which will aid in the design of laser cavities and other nonlinear optical elements.

Optical properties of Nd-doped rare-earth vanadates.

Rare-earth orthovanadates are being used as substitutes for traditional solid-state laser hosts, such as YAG. While the most common of these is yttrium orthovanadate, other rare-earth vanadates, such as lutetium vanadate and gadolinium vanadate, are being used for their special properties in certain applications. We report new measurements of the refractive indices and thermo-optic coefficients of these materials, which will aid in the design of laser cavities and other nonlinear optical elements.

Revisiting the optical properties of Nd doped yttrium orthovanadate.

Neodymium doped YVO(4) is becoming an increasingly popular material for solid state lasers. Among the advantages of vanadates over more traditional materials are that the absorption cross section at 808 nm is significantly larger, the emission cross sections are higher, leading to lower lasing thresholds, and the bandwidth for pump absorption is higher. We report new measurements of the refractive index and thermo-optic coefficient of this material that will aid in the design of laser cavities and other nonlinear optical elements.

Generation of 250 mW narrowband pulsed ultraviolet light by frequency quadrupling of an amplified erbium-doped fiber laser.

We demonstrate a high-power, narrowband pulsed source at 390 nm by two stages of frequency doubling in periodically poled MgO:LiNbO(3) and periodically poled KTiOPO(4) of an amplified, passively mode-locked fiber laser. With a frequency quadrupling efficiency of 5.5% and a 0.

Dispersion of barium gallogermanate glass.

Gallogermanate glasses are the subject of intense study as a result of their unique combination of physical and optical properties, including transmission from 0.4 to beyond 5.0 microm.