Diode Pumped, Garnet Channel Waveguide Lasers,

Ion implantation is a technique which can be used to form waveguides in a wide range of materials - including crystals of the garnet family for which no alternative techniques exist by bombarding the material surface with high energy ions and altering the refractive index. We report the use of this method to form channel waveguides in two Nd 3 doped materials NdYAG and NdGGG both of which have operated as ion implanted planar waveguide lasers . The additional confinement in the plane is achieved without any significant increase in propagation losses, which are comparable in the planar and channel guides. In the NDYAG system sub-milliwatt thresholds were observed.