STUDIES OF THE ENERGY TRANSFER PROCESSES FROM Er3+ AND Ho3+ TO Nd3+, Tb3+ OR Eu3+ IN LiYF4 CRYSTAL AND ZBLAN GLASS FOR THE LASER MEDIA OPTIMIZATION OPERATING NEAR 3µ m REGION

Author(s)

Fábio Henrique Jagosich

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN/BT)
• Defense date: 2006-06-14

Examining board members

Laércio Gomes; Lilia Coronato Courrol; Maximo Siu Li; José Roberto Martinelli; Sidney José Lima Ribeiro

• Advisor: Laércio Gomes
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics
• Indexed in: Banco de Dados Bibliográficos da USP-DEDALUS; Base de dados PHL Elysio - Rede de Bibliotecas da CNEN; Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações - USP
• Location: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares. Biblioteca Terezine Arantes Ferraz; T538.958; J24e

Abstract

The energy transfer processes (ET) from the 4I13/2 ; 4I11/2 levels of Er3+ and 5I7 ; 5I6 levels of Ho3+ ions in LiYF4 (YLF) crystal and ZBLAN glass to Nd3+, Tb3+ or Eu3+ deactivators ions were studied. The microparameters of these energy transfer processes were determined using the overlap integral method, and showed that Eu3+ ion is the best deactivator of the first excited state of the Ho3+ in YLF, and Nd3+ is the best deactivator of the Er3+ in YLF and ZBLAN materials. The 1.5 and 2.7 m emissions of Er3+ and 2.1 and 2.9 m fluorescence of Ho3+ were measured using short laser pulses excitations from a tunable OPO pumped 2w-Nd:YAG laser system. We proposed a criterion for discriminating the energy transfer processes assisted by excitation migration (diffusion or hopping) among donors. It was observed that diffusion model describes the ET process from the second excited state of the donor (Er3+ or Ho3+) independently of the CD-D / CD-A ratio, while the hopping model can describe the ET process involving the first excited state of donor. We proposed a modification of the hopping model in order to describe the experimental results for systems having CD-D / CD-A 10. Using the ET parameters, we determined that the best systems for laser action at 3 m are the Ho:Eu:YLF, Ho:Nd:YLF and Er:Nd:YLF systems. On the other hand, we found that Er3+ doped (1.5mol%) ZBLAN glasses, single and co-doped with Nd3+, Tb3+ or Eu3+, do not show potential for laser action at 2.8 m. The up-conversion processes were studied in Er:YLF systems as a function of the Er3+ concentration, and the excited state absorption (ESA) and upconversion by energy transfer (ETU) processes were discriminated using a time resolved fluorescence decays. It was observed that 980nm is the most convenient wavelength for pumping the Er:YLF system for quasi cw laser operation at 2.8 m. The pump-probe technique was used to investigate the lifetime effects in Er:YLF system showing that the excitation migration contribution to the lifetime of the first and second excited states of Er3+ decrease with the laser pump power increasing. Using the ET experimental rates determined for the best systems previously chosen based on the RN parameter as the input in the rate equation system numeric solved by Runge-Kutta (4th order), it was possible to evaluate the population density inversion for 2.8 m (Er3+) and 2.9 m (Ho3+) as a function of the pumping rate, activators and deactivators concentrations. The best concentration found for Er:YLF system was 20mol%. The best concentrations in the case of Er:Nd:YLF system are 4mol% of Er3+ and 1.5mol% of Nd3+. A frequency increasing from 14Hz to 391Hz has been estimated as the maximum operation frequency for the Er(20mol%):YLF and Er(4mol%):Nd(1.5mol%):YLF, respectively, based on the measured 4I13/2 excited state lifetime of Er3+. The best concentrations of Ho3+ and deactivators found for the Ho-laser in YLF are Ho(0.6mol%):Nd(1.5mol%) and Ho(3mol%):Eu(1.2mol%). The Ho(3mol%):Eu(1.2mol%) system showed a population density inversion 2.4 times bigger than the one verified in Ho(0.6mol%):Nd(1.5mol%) system. (AU)