Regular Article

Growth and spectral characters of Nd:CaGdAlO₄ crystal

¹ National Engineering & Technology Research Center of Scattered Metals, Vital Materials Co., Limited, 511517 Qingyuan, P.R. China
² School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, 410083 Changsha, P.R. China
³ College of Fundamental Studies, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, 201620 Shanghai, P.R. China
⁴ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Laser Material and Device, Jiangsu Normal University, 221116 Xuzhou, P.R. China
⁵ Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 201800 Shanghai, P.R. China
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, P.R. China

^a e-mail: jvqing.di@vitalchem.com
^b e-mail: xdxu79@mail.sic.ac.cn
^c e-mail: xia_ct@siom.ac.cn

Received: 11 October 2015
Revised: 23 January 2016
Accepted: 25 February 2016
Published online: 1 April 2016

Abstract

In this paper, crystal growth and polarized spectra of Nd:CaGdAlO₄ (Nd:CALGO) crystal were reported. The maximal absorption cross-sections are 6.8 and 7.5 × 10⁻²⁰ cm² for π-polarization and σ-polarization, and the emission cross-sections are 12.5 × 10⁻²⁰ cm² with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 18 and 11 nm, respectively. The Judd-Ofelt (JO) theory was used to calculate the spectral parameters and the effective intensity parameters Ω₂, Ω₄ and Ω₆ were 0.8 × 10⁻²⁰ cm², 7.5 × 10⁻²⁰ cm² and 5.8 × 10⁻²⁰ cm², respectively. The lifetime was 123 μs. The results show that Nd:CALGO crystal is a promising medium for laser output.