Ceramic rare earth-doped sesquioxides for infrared laser sources

In recent years, ceramic sesquioxide materials have emerged as a promising alternative to crystalline laser hosts for near- and mid-infrared laser applications. Ceramics offer a number of manufacturing advantages over crystals including lower fabrication temperatures and the amenability to forming much larger size samples. In this work, a number of RE ions, doped into multiple sesquioxide hosts, are spectroscopically characterized in order to assess their potential for near- and mid-infrared laser applications. Characterization methods included absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy as well as decay dynamics, all measured as functions of temperature. The results are analyzed in order to determine the best laser gain media in the near- and mid-infrared spectral regions.