Origin of athermal refractive index changes observed in Yb3+ doped YAG and KGW

Richard Moncorgé (1) , O.N. Eremeykin (1) , Jean-Louis Doualan (1) , O.L. Antipov

1 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique

Time-resolved excited-state absorption and fluorescence measurements were performed in the Yb3+ doped YAG and KGW laser crystals. The results indicate that the athermal refractive index changes observed in previous transient interferometric and diffraction grating experiments can be related to polarisability changes caused by the existence of strong UV charge transfer absorption bands.

Keywords: Ytterbium; Laser material; Refractive index; Charge transfer

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Richard Moncorgé, O.N. Eremeykin, Jean-Louis Doualan, O.L. Antipov. Origin of athermal refractive index changes observed in Yb3+ doped YAG and KGW. Optics Communications, 2008, 281, pp.2526-2530. ⟨cea-00344122⟩