Yb-doped yttrium aluminum perovskite for radiation-balanced laser application

Yttrium aluminum perovskite (YAP) shows lower phonon energy than yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) which the radiation balanced laser was demonstrated. In this work, we evaluated the PL characteristics and estimated the ideal laser cooling efficiency and the small-signal gain of the (Yb:Y)AP (Yb0.1Y0.9AlO3) ceramics fabricated by a solid-state reaction method. The obtained ideal laser cooling efficiencies of (Yb:Y)AP and (Yb:Y)AG at 300 K were 1.4 and 1.8%, respectively. On the other hand, the maximum small-signal gain of 0.27 cm−1 in (Yb:Y)AP is 3.5 times larger than that of 0.078 cm−1 in (Yb:Y)AG. The large small-signal gain of (Yb:Y)AP arises from its strong absorbance and intrinsic energy structure.