Optical Study of SrLaGaO$\text{}_{4}$ and SrLaGa$\text{}_{3}$O$\text{}_{7}$ Doped with Nd$\text{}^{3+}$ and Yb$\text{}^{3+}$

Single crystals of SrLaGaO$\text{}_{4}$ and SrLaGa$\text{}_{3}$O$\text{}_{7}$ singly doped with Nd and codoped with Nd and Yb have been grown by the Czochralski method. Both the compounds form tetragonal crystals but belong to different space groups. A common feature of these matrices is a structural disorder resulting from statistical distribution of Sr$\text{}^{2+}$ and La$\text{}^{3+}$ ions over the lattice sites. A previous investigation of a laser diode pumped SrLaGa$\text{}_{3}$O$\text{}_{7}$:Nd laser revealed that inhomogeneous broadening of spectral lines of Nd$\text{}^{3+}$ was advantageous for optical pumping and did not influence adversely the extraction efficiency. The present paper deals mainly with optical properties of Yb$\text{}^{3+}$ ions which are of interest for the design of lasers pumped by a diode laser and operating near 1 μm.