Potential applications of solid-state laser cooling in silica glass*

Solid-state laser cooling (SSLC) can remove heat from materials via anti-Stokes fluorescence cooling. Since the first observation of SSLC in ZBLAN glass in 1995 by R. Epstein et al., a variety of materials have been successfully cooled. Among the materials, Yb-doped crystals have gained more attention than others due to their higher ion solubility that could lead to high cooling efficiency. However, over the past two decades, the laser cooling of silica glass as the most widely used optical material has been void of success. This lack of success has led many to question the possibility of SSLC in silica. Recently, we have observed the SSLC in Yb-doped silica glass that potentially opens up new applications from radiation-balancing in fiber amplifiers to spot-cooling in silicon photonics. Here, we first investigate all the parameters that govern the SSLC in the materials and will show that SSLC in pure silica glass is achievable, and second, revisit some of our results on the SSLC of Yb-doped silica. Finally, we investigate the minimum temperature that an ultra-pure Yb-doped silica glass can achieve.

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