Luminescence of Cu +-β“-alumina

Abstract

A series of monovalent copper containing β-alumina single crystals have been prepared by standard ion exchange techniques. The crystals exhibit strong luminescence which we attribute to the 3d 94s → 3d 10 interconfigurational transition. The peak wavelength of this transition can be varied by 135 nm by the presence of other cations in the β“-alumina conduction plane, allowing the luminescence to be varied throughout the visible spectrum. Single-pass gain measurements of several of these crystals show gains of the order of 0.1/cm, suggesting the potential use of these materials for solid-state tunable lasers.