Laser Characteristics of Neodymium-Doped Lithium Germanate Glass

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Abstract
The spectroscopic characteristics of Nd‐doped lithium germanate glass are compared to those of Nd‐doped silicate glasses; the laser characteristics of Nd‐doped lithium germanate glass are compared to the corresponding properties of Nd‐doped glass and YAG samples. The spectroscopic properties of the Nd‐doped lithium germanate glass are similar in many respects to the familiar Nd‐doped glass materials. The Nd‐doped lasers were end pumped using the 5145‐Å output of pulsed argon ion lasers and oscillated at ∼1.06 μ at room temperature. This technique enables a precise determination of the pump energy required to reach the oscillation threshold. Threshold energy, output power, spiking, fluorescent conversion efficiency, laser rod losses, and stimulated emission cross sections at 1.06 μ are compared. Stimulated emission cross‐section values of the Nd:lithium germanate glass obtained by two methods are presented.