Near-Infrared Wavelength Dependence of Verdet Constant in Tb2Zr2O7 Transparent Ceramics

Transparent ceramics are widely developing for optical windows, laser gain mediums, phosphors for the LED lighting, and magneto-optic (MO) applications. In particular, advantages from the glass material or the single crystal of MO ceramics are notable for the high-power lasers from the view point of the large size capability, good thermal properties, and superior magneto-optics properties. Now a day, ceramic technology can realize several kind of cubic oxide materials such as terbium gallium garnet (TGG) [1-4], terbium aluminium garnet (TAG) [5], and sesquioxides [6-8]. In addition of above materials, Tb
₂
Zr
₂
O
₇
(TZO) transparent ceramics is a new candidate material for the high-power laser application. TZO has a relatively high concentration of Tb
³⁺
ion, a cubic pyrochlore structure, and no intrinsic absorption in the near infrared (NIR) region. To evaluate the potential of this material for the high-power laser application, we have evaluated the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength dependence of Verdet constant in TZO ceramics as the first time.