Widely tunable lasing in Nd-doped titanate glass prepared by aerodynamic levitation melting

Nontraditional glasses obtained from containerless processing techniques such as aerodynamic levitation melting have attracted much attention in recent decades for their unique structural motifs and optical properties. Herein, we report what we believe is the first demonstration of lasing from any glass produced by levitation melting. Spectroscopic properties are studied in detail, and the host is seen to have a high active ion solubility, with a quenching concentration of 6.7 × 10²⁰ ions/cm³. Laser experiments were carried out with a 1 mm thick glass disk of composition 0.5 Nd₂O₃-16.5 La₂O₃-83 TiO₂ glass. Slope efficiency with respect to absorbed power reaches 40%, and beam quality is good with an average <i>M</i>² = 1.88. Notably, the inhomogeneous broadening driven by the unconventional glass network's structural diversity enables a wide continuous tuning range spanning 1058-1121 nm. These outcomes provide impetus to continue research into spectroscopic and lasing properties of nontraditional glass gain media.