Integrity Review Report: High-Power, High-Efficiency, Low-Noise Single-Frequency Er:YAG Non-Planar Ring Cavity Laser (Invited)

Academic fraud report · Geng Detector

Summary

Verdict: No evidence of academic misconduct detected (clean). This invited paper published in Chinese Journal of Lasers (DOI: 10.3788/CJL260445) reports a high-power single-frequency Er:YAG non-planar ring cavity laser. Internal consistency checks confirm the reported optical-to-optical efficiencies (48.1% at 300 K and 77.9% at 80 K) match recalculated values from stated output (13.9 W, 22.5 W) and pump (28.9 W) powers within rounding. The physical rationale (switching from the 1532.3 nm main absorption peak to the 1532.5 nm satellite peak at 77 K to avoid bleaching) is consistent with established solid-state laser practice. Timeline checks show a normal submission-to-publication flow (received Jan 2026, published Jun 2026) with the latest cited reference (2025) predating submission. Commercial instruments mentioned (Yokogawa AQ6370D, Ophir Spiricon Pyrocam III, Thorlabs PM100D) are real products. Limitations: pixel-level image manipulation analysis was not possible from text extraction alone, so subtle figure alterations cannot be entirely excluded. Overall confidence in the clean verdict is high, subject to that caveat.

Verdict

Clean. No substantive indicators of data fabrication, image reuse, or methodological misconduct were identified from the available text. The paper appears to be a legitimate experimental optics/laser engineering study.

Key findings

Numerical self-consistency: Reported optical-to-optical efficiencies (48.1% at 300 K; 77.9% at 80 K) match independent recalculation from stated pump (28.9 W) and output (13.9 W and 22.5 W) powers, within valid rounding.
Physical plausibility: The shift from pumping the 1532.3 nm main absorption peak at 300 K to the 1532.5 nm satellite peak at 77 K, motivated by absorption bleaching at low temperature, is a standard and well-grounded strategy in Er:YAG laser design.
Timeline consistency: Received January 2026, accepted March 2026, published June 2026 (Vol. 53, Issue 11); the most recent cited reference (Applied Optics, 2025) precedes submission.
Equipment authenticity: Cited instruments (Yokogawa AQ6370D OSA, Ophir/Spiricon Pyrocam III pyroelectric camera, Thorlabs PM100D power meter) correspond to genuine commercial models widely used in laser laboratories.
Realistic experimental signatures: Reported beam quality factors M^2 of 1.31 and 1.34 and a linewidth of 2.6 kHz exhibit the non-ideal, asymmetric character typical of genuine measurements.

Evidence highlights

Efficiency check at 300 K: 13.9 ÷ 28.9 ≈ 48.097% ≈ reported 48.1%.
Efficiency check at 80 K: 22.5 ÷ 28.9 ≈ 77.85% ≈ reported 77.9%.
Submission date: 2026-01-12; latest reference cited: Yu Y et al., Applied Optics, 2025.
DOI: 10.3788/CJL260445.
Measurement figures cited: M^2 = 1.31 and 1.34; linewidth = 2.6 kHz.

Notes

Scope limitation: Only textual content was available for review; pixel-level duplicate-image detection (one-figure-reuse) and splicing/PS-manipulation checks could not be performed. Figures 4 and 7 (power curves) are suggested for visual confirmation of any excessive smoothing.
Discipline-specific note: The paper is a physics/engineering experimental study and does not contain biomedical image types (e.g., Western blots, microscopy), so the typical high-risk image-fraud categories are less applicable here.
Confidence: High for data-text consistency and methodological plausibility; moderate-to-high overall, constrained by the absence of original image files.