Synthesis and optical spectra of transparent YAG ceramics activated with Er3+

YAG:Er3+ is an important active material for laser devices operating in the 1.6 mm region [1]. The perspective of producing high quality YAG:Er3+ laser ceramics is very attractive in terms of costs, shaping, control of the doping level, and so on. The sintering technology successfully adopted at ISTEC for developing YAG:Yb3+ laser ceramics [2] has been extended to the synthesis of YAG:Er3+. This communication is focused on the characterization of the obtained materials. [1] M. Eichorn, Opt. Lett. 36 (2011) 1245. [2] D. Alderighi, A. Pirri, G. Toci, M. Vannini, L. Esposito, A. L. Costa, A. Piancastelli, M. Serantoni, Opt. Mat. 33 (2010) 205.