Abstract

Ti³⁺ doped sapphire is a well known solid state laser material in the red and near infrared spectral range. An extension to shorter wavelengths is desirable, because in the yellow range no tunable solid state lasers exist. Ti:YA10₃ provides a high crystal field strength at the AI-site and can be doped with Ti up to 0.3 at%. The maximum of the fluorescence is at 612 nm, that is 150 nm shorter than in Ti:Al₂O₃. However, laser action in this material could not be achieved (except one publication [1]) due to strong excited state absorption into a charge transfer state which was interpreted to be a bound exciton [2]. In order to confirm or reject this interpretation, UV absorption, excitation, and fluorescence measurements have been performed resulting in a band model of Ti:YAIO₃.

© 1996 Optical Society of America