Effect of radiation trapping on fluorescence lifetime and emission cross section measurements in solid-state laser media

Radiation trapping causes significant lengthening of the measured fluorescence lifetime in optically thin solid-state laser gain media, which leads to underestimates of the stimulated emission cross section by as much as 30%. A measurement technique is demonstrated that greatly reduces radiation trapping in Yb:YAG, a prototypical quasi-three-level laser medium. The radiative lifetime of the (2)F(5/2) manifold was measured to be 0.951 ms at 300 K, which is more than 10% lower than any previous measurement. This more-accurate radiative lifetime gives a 1.03-microm peak effective stimulated emission cross section of 2.3 x 10(-20) cm(2). Our measurement technique is expected to be most relevant for three-level and quasi-three-level laser media.