Progress and perspectives on composite laser ceramics: A review

Solid-state laser has been widely used in industrial production, military weapons and scientific research because of its compact structure, convenient use and high output power. As the core material of solid-state laser, gain media are the key to its further development. Therefore, the design of appropriate composite structure gain media has attracted extensive attention. Especially for laser ceramics with excellent structural designability, the research on their composite structures has developed rapidly, such as surface gain structure that can improve thermal conductivity; concentration gradient doping structure that can improve energy storage capacity and temperature gradient; clad-core structure which can suppress ASE effect and optical waveguide structure which can improve thermal effect and facilitate device miniaturization. In this paper, the structure design, materials preparation and performance advantages of different composite laser ceramics have been introduced systematically. Finally, the progress of composite laser ceramics is summarized, and the prospect is put forward.