Spectroscopic properties of La3Lu2Ga3O12:Nd3+ crystals

Laser‐pumped, single‐pass transmission measurements were peformed on a La3Lu2Ga3O12 crystal containing 3.3 at.% Nd3+ to determine the usefulness of this material as a laser. No optical gain was observed. To ascertain why, time‐resolved, site‐selection spectroscopy measurements were made to determine the effects of ion‐ion interaction and two‐photon excitation spectroscopy measurements were made to determine the effects of excited state absorption. The results show the presence of very weak energy transfer between ions in non‐equivalent crystal field sites and the presence of very strong two‐photon absorption transitions.