Short communication All-solid-state Nd:YAG ceramic fourth-harmonic ultraviolet laser at 266 nm

Transparent Nd:YAG ceramic was fabricated by a solid-state reaction method using a mixture of commercial α-Al2O3 ,Y 2O3 and Nd2O3 powders. The sample with an average grain size of 20 μm has a fully dense microstructure. The transmittances of the ceramic sample are 82.1% and 84.3% at 400 nm and 1064 nm, respectively, which are very close to the theoretical values of Nd:YAG single crystal with good quality. 266 nm ultraviolet-beam generation by fourth-harmonic generation of an all-solid-state Nd:YAG ceramic laser is demonstrated. When the pump power at 808 nm is 20 W, the average output power at 266 nm is 0.32 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency from 808 nm to 266 nm is 1.6%. This is the first report on laser output at 266 nm for Nd:YAG ceramics to date. & 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.