Research and development of new neodymium laser glasses

This work presents a brief introduction on three kinds of newly developed Nd3+-doped laser glasses in Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), China. Two Nd3+-doped phosphate glasses with lower thermal expansion coefficient and thermal shock resistance 4 times higher than that of N31 glass are developed for laser processing. Nd:Silicate and Nd:Aluminate glasses with peak emission wavelength at 1061 and 1065 nm, effective emission bandwidth of 34 and 50 nm, respectively, are developed for Exawatt-class laser system application. Fluorophosphate glasses with low nonlinear refractive index (n2 = 0.6–0.86) and long fluorescence lifetime (430–510 μs) are investigated for the purpose of decreasing B integral in high-power laser system. The properties of all these glasses are presented and compared with those of commercial neodymium laser glasses.