Rare-Earth-Doped Crystals and Solar-Pumped Solid-State Lasers
This community develops solid-state laser materials, primarily rare-earth-doped crystals and fibers, with a specific focus on systems pumped by concentrated sunlight. The work addresses the engineering of energy transfer mechanisms and optical properties to convert solar radiation into coherent laser light.
The research centers on the growth and spectroscopic characterization of single crystals, with Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) and calcium fluoride (CaF2) as dominant host materials. Neodymium (Nd) and Cerium (Ce) are the primary dopants, often combined in Ce:Nd:YAG configurations to optimize solar absorption and laser output. Key methods include laser operation analysis, passively Q-switched pulse generation, and the study of energy transfer between ions. Applications range from high-power continuous-wave solar lasers to fiber-based amplifiers. The work is heavily supported by computational modeling of crystal-field parameters and lattice dynamics to predict emission properties.
The largest share of the community's output is found in yttrium research, accounting for 1.0% of all yttrium studies, and neodymium research, representing 1.5% of that element's literature. This community contributes 954 papers to yttrium research and 681 to neodymium research.
The community comprises 8,627 papers, published most frequently in The Journal of Chemical Physics, Physical Review, and Physical Review B.
Recent work continues to refine solar-pumped laser efficiency, with studies reporting conversion efficiencies exceeding 5% in composite YAG media and exploring new host materials like melilites and YVO4 for infrared emission.