Emission properties study of a Nd3+ doped TZA glass random laser

Abstract

Random lasers (RLs) have been thoroughly studied for applications such as high definition speckle free imaging, lithography, miniature spectroscopy, etc. RLs made with crystalline powders have shown promising results, with high emission efficiencies and narrow wavelength bandwidth. However, few studies on glass random lasers have been made, since its inhomogeneous broadening make it hard to verify the linewidth narrowing characteristic of laser emission. Here, we describe linewidth and temporal measurements for a TZA glass doped with 16 wt% neodymium. We verified a 0.5 nm linewidth narrowing at laser threshold. The pump intensity where the transition occurs coincided with the appearance of a faster emission decay, showing the presence of laser emission for higher pump power energies. This result is promising in understanding random lasing for glass powders.