Structure and spectroscopic properties of a disordered Nd:CaGdAl3O7 crystal

•A disordered Nd3+-doped CaGdAl3O7 crystal was grown with its spectroscopic properties studied in detail.•The random distribution of Ca2+ and Gd3+ in the lattice causes the inhomogeneous broadening in absorption and emission spectra.•The spectroscopic properties indicate potential applications of this crystal in the tunable, pulsed even high-energy laser operations. A disordered Nd3+-doped CaGdAl3O7 crystal was grown by the optical floating zone method. The absorption and fluorescence spectra of Nd:CaGdAl3O7 crystal were measured, and the spectroscopic properties were studied intensively with the Judd–Ofelt theory. The calculated absorption cross-section was 3.78 × 10-20 cm−2 at 808.5 nm with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 19.3 nm. The emission cross-section centered at 1061.6 nm was estimated to be 4.94 × 10-20 cm2 with a FWHM of 12.6 nm, and the fluorescence lifetime of 4F3/2 energy level was measured as 260.7 μs. The experimental results revealed the potential of Nd:CaGdAl3O7 crystal applied in 1.06 μm laser system.