Abstract
We report the complete characterization of various cooling-grade Tm-doped crystals including, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of optical refrigeration in Tm:YLF crystals. Room temperature laser cooling efficiencies of 1% and 2% (mol) Tm:YLF and 1% Tm:BYF crystals at different excitation polarizations are measured, and their external quantum efficiency and background absorption are extracted. By performing detailed low-temperature spectroscopic analysis of the samples, global minimum achievable temperatures of 160 to 110 K are estimated. The potential of Tm-doped crystals to realize mid-IR optical cryocoolers and radiation balanced lasers (RBLs) in the eye-safe region of the spectrum is discussed, and a promising two-tone RBL in a tandem structure of Tm:YLF and Ho:YLF crystals is proposed.
© 2019 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleCorrections
17 April 2019: A typographical correction was made to Ref. 5.
More Like This
Saeid Rostami, Alexander R. Albrecht, Azzurra Volpi, and Mansoor Sheik-Bahae
Photon. Res. 7(4) 445-451 (2019)
Azzurra Volpi, Junwei Meng, Aram Gragossian, Alexander R. Albrecht, Saeid Rostami, Alberto Di Lieto, Richard I. Epstein, Mauro Tonelli, Markus P. Hehlen, and Mansoor Sheik-Bahae
Opt. Express 27(21) 29710-29718 (2019)
Stefan Püschel, Felix Mauerhoff, Christian Kränkel, and Hiroki Tanaka
Opt. Lett. 47(2) 333-336 (2022)