Influence of short-lived color centers on the lifetime of a metastable level of neodymium in silicate glasses

It was found that the short-lived color centers formed in neodymium-activated silicate glasses under the action of the violet part of the pump spectrum increased the lifetime of a neodymium metastable level by more than an order of magnitude in needle-shaped waveguide lasers. The highly efficient suppression of superradiance and a strong increase in the gain of the active element were due to stimulated decay of the color centers accompanying absorption of photons emitted by the neodymium.