New Oxide Crystals for Solid State Lasers

Rare earth doped scandia and yttria have been grown from rhenium crucibles by the Czochralski technique - to our knowledge for the first time. Spectroscopic data of Yb:Sc 2 O 3 are presented in detail and first laser experiments are reported. Despite the rather high crystal losses of about 2 % a slope efficiency of 37 % was obtained under diode pumping.