Nd, Cr co-doped gadolinium gallium garnet laser waveguide structure formed by pulsed laser deposition

Self-Q-switched Nd lasers with Cr-doped garnet as a saturable absorber have been reported. Recently, self-Q-switching operation of Nd,Cr co-doped YAG bulk crystal, which has both functions of a gain medium and a saturable absorber, has been demonstrated by diode pumping. This is a monolithic Q-switched bulk laser. This advantage is applicable to a waveguide laser which has merits of optical confinement, low oscillation threshold, high slope efficiency and device integration capability. In this study, Nd,Cr co-doped gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) waveguide structures have been fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The concentrations of Nd and Cr in thin films were well controlled by changing the laser ablation fluence for Nd:GGG and Cr:GGG targets. And the formed films showed excellent characteristics of a gain medium and a saturable absorber.