Room-temperature cw and pulsed operation of a diode-end-pumped Tm:YAP laser

We report the continuous-wave and acousto-optical Q-switched operation of a diode-end-pumped Tm:YAP laser. Continuous-wave output power of 3.5 W at 1.99 mu m was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 14 W. Under Q-switched laser operation, the average output power increased from 1.57 W to 2.0 W, with an absorbed pump power of 12.6 W, as the repetition rate increased from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. The maximum Q-switched pulse energy was 1.57 mJ with a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The minimum pulse width was measured to be about 80 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 19.6 kW.

Spectral investigation of Yb-doped calcium pyroniobate crystal

Ytterbium-doped calcium pyroniobate single crystal has been grown for the first time. Spectral properties of Yb: Ca2Nb2O7 were investigated by emission and absorption spectra. Its cooperative luminescence and fluorescence lifetime were also studied. Yb ions in Ca2Nb2O7 showed very broad absorption and emission bandwidth and relatively large absorption and emission cross-sections. Along with other optical properties, this Yb-doped crystal would be a potential self-frequency doubling femtosecond laser gain material. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Studies of magnetic interactions in Mn-doped β-Ga2O3 from first-principles calculations

The magnetic behavior of Mn-doped beta-Ga2O3 is Studied from first-principles calculations within the generalized gradient approximation method. Calculations show that ferromagnetic ordering is always favorable for configurations in which two Mn ions substitute either tetrahedral or octahedral sites, and the ferromagnetic ground state is also sometimes favorable for configurations where one Mn ion substitutes a tetrahedral site and another Mn ion substitutes an octahedral site. However, the configurations of the latter case are less stable than those of the former. (c) 2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Studies of magnetic interactions in Ni-doped ZnO from first-principles calculations

The magnetic interactions in Ni-doped ZnO are calculated using GGA and GGA + U method of density functional theory. The following three cases: (i) Ni-doped ZnO, (ii) (Ni, Al)-codoped ZnO, and (iii) (Ni, Li)-codoped ZnO are studied. The ferromagnetic ordering is always favorable for the three cases within GGA method. However, the ferromagnetic state is sometimes favorable after treating within the method of GGA + U. The GGA underestimates the correlated interactions especially when the Ni ions align directly to each other. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bulk crystal growth and efficient diode-pumped laser performance of Yb 3+:Sc2SiO5

A bulk crystal of Yb:Sc2SiO5 (Yb:SSO) with favorable thermal properties was successfully obtained by the Czochralski method. The energy level diagrams for Yb:SSO crystal were determined by optical spectroscopic analysis and semi-empirical crystal-field calculations using the simple overlap model. The full width at half maximum of the absorption band centering at 976 nm was calculated to be 24 nm with a peak absorption cross-section of 9.2x10(-21) cm(2). The largest ground-state splitting of Yb3+ ions is up to 1027 cm(-1) in a SSO crystal host. Efficient diode-pumped laser performance of Yb:SSO was primarily demonstrated with a slope efficiency of 45% and output power of 3.55 W.

Absence of room-temperature ferromagnetism in Al-codoped Zn0.95Co0.05O nanoparticles

Nanocrystalline Zn0.95-xCo0.05AlxO (x=0, 0.01, 0.05) diluted magnetic semiconductors have been synthesized by an auto-combustion method. X-ray diffraction measurements indicated that Al-doped Zn0.95Co0.05O samples had the pure wurtzite structure. X-ray absorption spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrometer and Co 2p core-level photoemission spectroscope analyses indicated that Co2+ substituted for Zn2+ without forming any secondary phases or impurities. Resistance measurements showed that the resistance values of Co and Al codoped samples were still so large in the giga magnitude. Magnetic investigations showed that nanocrystalline Al-doped Zn0.95Co0.05O samples had no indication of room temperature ferromagnetism. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.