DISORDERED ND-DOPED CRYSTALS FOR DIODE PUMPING

Some interest has been directed recently to neodymium doped crystals w ith strong inhomogeneous broadening of absorption bands which are beli eved to be better suited for diode pumping than the crystals with orde red lattice. The disordered Nd-doped crystals may be obtained in two w ays. The first one is to introduce a structural disorder in ordered la ttice by substituting partially one or more cations by cations with di fferent charges. Alternatively, the compounds with inherently disorder ed structure are synthesized and doped with Nd. We consider two wide f amilies of compounds of general formulae ABC(3)O(7) and ABCO(4) where A stands for Ca, Sr, Ba, B is Y or rare earth and C stands for Ga or A l. Both the families form the crystals with inherently disordered stru cture and can accept an appreciable amount of Nd. Results of structura l and spectroscopic investigations are used to determine material's pa rameters relevant to laser performance. Comparison of several disorder ed crystals is made and their suitability for diode pumping is discuss ed.