Damage behaviors in Nd:YVO4 by multi-energy proton implantation

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms Beam interactions with materials and atoms, 2012-09, Vol.286, p.213-217
• Main Authors: Liu, Xiu-Hong, Zhao, Jin-Hua, Zhang, Shao-Mei, Peng, Bao-Gang, Chen, Ming, Ming, Xian-Bing, Ma, Yu-Jie, Qin, Xi-Feng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Damage; Nd:YVO4; Proton implantation; Waveguide
• ISSN: 0168-583X; 1872-9584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2011.11.015

We fabricated planar waveguides in x-cut and z-cut Nd:YVO4 by multi-energy proton implantation to a total fluence of 4.5×1016ions/cm2 at room temperature. The effective refractive indices of guiding modes in the waveguide were measured by the prism-coupling method at wavelengths of 633 and 1539nm, and the refractive index profile of the waveguide were reconstructed by the reflectivity calculation method. Damage behaviors of x-cut and z-cut Nd:YVO4 waveguides after multi-energy proton implantation were investigated by the Rutherford backscattering/channeling technique and confocal micro-Raman spectra. To our knowledge, there has been no report on Rutherford backscattering/channel and Raman spectra of Nd:YVO4 waveguides formed by multi-energy proton implantation. We found that the minimum yield in the Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectra of Nd:YVO4 depends on cut direction. The minimum yield of the z-cut Nd:YVO4 virgin was 1.87%, which increased to 2.41% after proton implantation, while the minimum yield of the x-cut Nd:YVO4 virgin was 14.53%, which increased to 15.01% after proton implantation. In the Raman spectra, most of peak positions and peak widths had no obvious change before and after proton implantation.