Growth and spectroscopic properties of a novel Tm3+-doped YSr3(PO4)3 disordered crystal

A novel Tm3+-doped YSr3(PO4)(3) (Tm:YSP) crystal with a disordered crystal structure was grown by using the Czochralski pulling method. The single crystal growth, structure, absorption and emission spectra were systematically analyzed. The absorption bandwidth at similar to 792 nm was found to be 21 nm, showing that the Tm:YSP crystal was very suitable for commercial laser diodes pumping of AlGaAs. Furthermore, the maximum emission cross section centering at 1835 nm was determined to be 0.86 x 10(-20) cm(2) with an emission bandwidth of 202 nm, which indicates the promising applications in the fields of ultrafast and tunable lasers. In addition, Spectroscopic parameters, containing Judd - Ofelt intensity, line strengths, radiative transition probabilities, fluorescence branching ratio and radiative lifetime, were analyzed by using the Judd - Ofelt theory. All above results showed that the Tm:YSP crystal with a disordered structure was a potential laser medium in the similar to 2 mu m region.