Crystal growth and spectral properties of Tb:Lu2O3**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61621001), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2016YFB1102202 and 2016YFB0701002), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China. We acknowledge the help of MOE Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-Structured Materials and School of Physical Science

Abstract

The crystal growth, x-ray diffraction pattern, absorption spectrum, emission spectrum, and fluorescence lifetime of a Tb:Lu2O3 single crystal were studied. Excited at 483 nm, the peak absorption cross-section was calculated to be 3.5 × 10−22 cm2, and the full width at half maximum was found to be 2.85 nm. The Judd–Ofelt (J–O) intensity parameters Ω2, Ω4, and Ω6 were computed to be 3.79 × 10−20 cm2, 1.30 × 10−20 cm2, and 1.08 × 10−20 cm2, with a spectroscopic quality factor Ω4/Ω6 being 1.20. The emission cross-sections of green emission around 543 nm and yellow emission around 584 nm were calculated to be 9.43 × 10−22 cm2 and 1.32 × 10−22 cm2, respectively. The fluorescence lifetime τexp of 5D4 was fitted to be 1.13 ms. The data suggest that the Tb:Lu2O3 crystal could be a potential candidate for green and yellow laser operation.