Growth, structure and spectroscopic properties of Er,Pr:YAP laser crystal

Er3+ and Pr3+ co-doped YAP laser crystal with high optical quality was grown successfully by the Czochralski method for the first time. By contrast, an Er3+ single doped YAP laser crystal was also grown. The cell parameters of the two crystals were obtained by the X-ray Rietveld refinement method. The X-ray rocking curves indicate that the as-grown crystals possess excellent crystalline quality. The absorption spectra show that the crystals are suitable to be pumped by 972 nm LD. The NIR and MIR emission spectra, the up–conversion spectra and the fluorescence decay curves were also measured to investigate the influence of Pr3+ ions on the spectroscopic properties. The results indicate the Pr3+ ions acting as the deactivator can decrease efficiently the lifetime of the lower laser level 4I13/2 of the Er3+ ions from 10.72 to 0.489 ms, which would be beneficial to decrease the laser threshold and increase the laser conversion efficiency.