Laser materials development by means of a solid-state bonding method

This paper reviews laser materials development via a bonding method without adhesives. Instead of conventional chemical etching, a dry etching technique using an argon beam has been newly developed for the bonding method. This method meets the requirement for the use of optical materials. We succeeded in the fabrication of a composite laser crystal with good heat conductivity by bonding two kinds of crystals; one is neodymium-doped YVO4 crystal (Nd:YVO4) and the other is its host crystal YVO4. In the comparison of the laser performance between the normal and composite crystal, the composite one shows the good lasing capability of increasing laser output without fracture of the crystal due to thermal stress which appeared in the normal one. (author)