Spectral characteristics of the extraction of excitation energy from neodymium glass amplifiers

The results are reported of an investigation of the extraction of the energy stored in an inhomogeneously broadened gain profile of neodymium glasses by amplification of laser pulses. It is reported that the highest energy can be extracted in the long-wavelength wing of a luminescence line of a phosphate glass. A comparison is made of the experimental results with the spectroscopic data on the Stark structure of a laser transition in neodymium glasses, and with the data on narrow-band excitation of the luminescence spectra of inhomogeneously broadened systems.