《Model of laser-induced temperature changes in solid-state optical refrigera》.pdf

JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 107, 063108 2010 Model of laser-induced temperature changes in solid-state optical refrigerators W. M. Patterson,1,a M. Sheik-Bahae,1 R. I. Epstein,2 and M. P. Hehlen2 1 Physics and Astronomy, The University of New Mexico, 800 Yale Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA 2 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA Received 21 October 2009; accepted 13 November 2009; published online 29 March 2010 We present an efficient and numerically stable method to calculate time-dependent, laser-induced temperature distributions in solids and provide a detailed description of the computational procedure and its implementation. This study combines the two-dimensional heat equation with laser-induced heat generation and temperature-dependent luminescence. The time-dependent optical response of a system is obtained numerically by the Crank–Nicolson method. This general model is applied to the specific case of optical refrigeration in ytterbium Yb3+ doped fluorozirconate glass ZBLAN. The laser-induced temperature change upon optical pumping and the respective transient luminescence response are calculated and compared to experimental data. The model successfully predicts the zero-crossing temperature, the net quantum efficiency, and the functional shape of the transients. We find that the laser-cooling transients have a fast and a slow component that are determined by the excited-state lifetime of the luminescent ion and the thermal properties of the bulk, respectively. The tools presented here may find application in the design of a wide range of optical and optoelectronic devices. © 2010 American Institute of Physi