Spectroscopic and continuous-wave laser properties of Er:GdScO3 crystal at 2.7 µm

Er:GdScO3 crystal was grown by the edge-defined film-fed (EFG) method for the first time. The rocking curve showed that the as-grown crystal has a high crystalline quality. The peak absorption cross section at 980 nm is 0.38×10−20 cm2 with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 19.5 nm and the peak emission cross section at 2720 nm is 0.93×10−20 cm2 with FWHM of 149.0 nm. The fluorescence lifetimes of 4I11/2 and 4I13/2 were fitted to be 2.24 ms and 4.57 ms, respectively. At inversion ratio P≥0.5, the positive local peak of gain cross-section at 2.7 µm was obtained. Continuous-wave laser operation of Er:GdScO3 crystal was demonstrated. The maximum output power of 863 mW was obtained with a slope efficiency of 11.25%. The results indicated that Er:GdScO3 crystal is a potential laser material for 2.7 µm laser.