Optical refrigeration to 119 K, below National Institute of Standards and Technology cryogenic temperature

Seth D Melgaard; Denis V Seletskiy; Alberto Di Lieto; Mauro Tonelli; Mansoor Sheik-Bahae

doi:10.1364/OL.38.001588

Optical refrigeration to 119 K, below National Institute of Standards and Technology cryogenic temperature

Opt Lett. 2013 May 1;38(9):1588-90. doi: 10.1364/OL.38.001588.

Authors

Seth D Melgaard¹, Denis V Seletskiy, Alberto Di Lieto, Mauro Tonelli, Mansoor Sheik-Bahae

Affiliation

¹ University of New Mexico, Physics and Astronomy Department, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA. melgaard@unm.edu

PMID: 23632561
DOI: 10.1364/OL.38.001588

Abstract

We report on bulk optical refrigeration of Yb:YLF crystal to a temperature of ~124 K, starting from the ambient. This is achieved by pumping the E4-E5 Stark multiplet transition at ~1020 nm. A lower temperature of 119±1 K (~-154C) with available cooling power of 18 mW is attained when the temperature of the surrounding crystal is reduced to 210 K. This result is within only a few degrees of the minimum achievable temperature of our crystal and signifies the bulk solid-state laser cooling below the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-defined cryogenic temperature of 123 K.