Er3+ diffusion in LiTaO3 crystal

Abstract

Some Er3+-doped LiTaO3 plates were prepared by in-diffusion of Er-metal film locally coated onto congruent Z-cut substrate in air at a wide temperature range from 1000 to 1500°C. After diffusion, Er3+-doping effect on LiTaO3 refractive index and Li2O out-diffusion arising from Er3+ in-diffusion were studied at first. Refractive indices at the doped and undoped surface parts were measured by prism coupling technique and the surface composition was estimated. The results show that Er3+ dopant has small contribution to the LiTaO3 index. Li2O out-diffusion is slight (Li2O content loss <0.3mol%) for the temperature below 1300°C while is moderate (Li2O content loss <0.6mol%) for the temperature above 1400°C. The Er3+ profile was studied by secondary ion mass spectrometry. The study shows that the diffused Er3+ ions follow either a complementary error function or a Gaussian profile. Characteristic parameters including diffusivity, diffusion constant, activation energy, solubility, solubility constant and heat of solution were obtained and compared with the LiNbO3 case. The comparison shows that the diffusivity and solubility in LiTaO3 are considerably smaller than in LiNbO3 because of the difference of Ta and Nb in atomic weight.