Interferometric measurement of the temperature coefficient of the refractive index dn/dT and the coefficient of thermal expansion of Pr:YLF laser crystals.

We report interferometric measurements of the temperature coefficient of the refractive index (dn/dT) and the coefficient of thermal expansion (α) of a praseodymium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride (Pr:YLF) crystal and of a fused silica reference sample. Our phase-resolved interferometric method yields a large number of data points and thus allows a precise measurement and a good error estimation. Furthermore, both dn/dT and α are obtained simultaneously from a single measurement which reduces errors that can occur in separate measurements. Over the temperature range from 20 °C to 80 °C, the value of dn/dT of Pr:YLF decreases from −5.2 × 10(−6)/K to −6.2 × 10(−6)/K for the ordinary refractive index and from −7.6 × 10(−6)/K to −8.6 × 10(−6)/K for the extraordinary refractive index. The coefficient of thermal expansion for the a-axis of Pr:YLF increases from 16.4 × 10(−6)/K to 17.8 × 10(−6)/K over the same temperature range.