Epitaxial neodymium-doped sapphire films, a new active medium for waveguide lasers

Epitaxial films of neodymium-doped sapphire have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on R-, A-, and M-plane sapphire substrates. The emission spectrum features sharp lines consistent with single-site doping of the Nd3+ ion into the host crystal. This material is believed to be a nonequilibrium phase, inaccessible by conventional high-temperature growth methods. Neodymium-doped sapphire has a promising lasing line at 1096 nm with an emission cross section of 11.9 x 10(-19) cm(2), similar to the 1064 nm line of Nd:YVO4. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America