Measuring the stimulated-emission cross-section: a case study in Nd : GGG

The stimulated-emission cross-section is a fundamental optical parameter th at is used to characterize laser-active media. Oftentimes, one has incomple te information as regards to the spectroscopy or doping concentration of th e laser-active species. In this paper, we present a method for the measurem ent of the stimulated-emission cross-section which is useful if either the concentration of laser-active species or detailed spectroscopic information is not known a priori, or as a means of comparing the results of several m ethods of cross-section determination. The method requires only a few simpl e measurements and is amenable to media in bulk form. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.