Long (111)-oriented Y3Al5O12:Nd3+ single crystal fibers grown by modified micro-pulling down technology for optical characterization and laser generation

Abstract Long (1 1 1)-oriented 0.2 at% Nd 3+ doped Y 3 Al 5 O 12 (YAG:Nd) single crystal fibers were grown by modified pulling down technology. The crystal fibers with uniform diameter ranging from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm and about 970 mm long were obtained under optimal stationary stable growth conditions. The characterization of their optical properties (propagation and transmission) shows that the fibers were optically powerful with optical performance similar to rods cut from bulk single crystal grown by the conventional Czochralski technique. In a diode pumped configuration, we obtained a cw power of 10 W at 1064 nm, with a M 2 quality factor of 5, for an incident pump power of 60 W at 808 nm. In Q-switched regime, 12 ns pulses with an energy of 4.4 mJ at 1 kHz have been produced.