Investigation of lasing characteristics of domestic Yb : YAG laser ceramics

We report on the synthesis and laser characteristics of -doped yttrium aluminium garnet optical ceramics. The ceramics was produced by solid-phase reactive sintering of a mixture of Yb (5 at %) : and nanopowders synthesised by laser ablation, using additional calcination of the mixture before compaction. In a thin disk geometry, multiwatt laser oscillation was obtained at a wavelength of with a power of and a slope efficiency of 37.0 % at a pump pulse period-to-duration ratio of 5.72.