Influence of CaO/MgO ratio on Cr3+ to Cr4+conversion efficiency in YAG:Cr4+ ceramic saturable absorbers

Transparent Cr4+:YAG ceramics with high optical quality was fabricated using solid state reactive sintering. The effect of CaO/MgO ratio on Cr3+ →Cr4+ conversion efficiency was studied. In samples with fixed total amount of divalent ions, Cr4+ conversion efficiency is growing with increasing of Ca2+/Mg2+ ratio. Samples were fully transparent after sintering at 1840 °C for 8 h and annealing in air at 1400 °C for 10 h. Some rather specific defects were observed, their nature investigated and model of forming proposed. Most probable nature of these defects is tungsten inclusions in ceramics sourced by tungsten vapors inside the vacuum furnace. This is far more pronounced with high calcium oxide presence in ceramic samples. The main saturable absorber characteristics were systematically measured.