Growth and optical properties of Pr3+:KLu(WO4)2 laser crystal: a candidate for red emission laser

A Pr3+:KLu(WO4)2 crystal with dimension of 30 × 30 × 15 mm3 was grown in the K2W2O7 flux. A slice was cut from the crystal, and the polarized absorption and fluorescence spectra were measured at room temperature. Based on the J-O theory, the oscillator intensity parameters Ω t (t = 2, 4, 6), spontaneous emission probabilities and branch ratios were estimated and good results had been obtained. Furthermore, the crystal has a relatively large emission cross-section in the region of 615–630 nm with the highest value of 14.5 × 10−20 cm2, which indicates that the crystal is good for the application in red emission laser. The emission decay time for 1D2 and 3P0 multiplets was discussed. By adapting the I-H model to fit the emission decay curves, the lifetime for 1D2 at 607 nm and 3P0 at 615 nm are 19.72 μs and 8.95 μs, respectively. Then the corresponding fluorescence quantum efficiencies of the two multiplets reach 83.7 % and 87.9 %, respectively. All the studies illustrate that this crystal is potential in red emission laser application.