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.