Optical spectra and crystal field calculations of doped Zircon-type laser hosts (, P, As)

Abstract

Low temperature absorption spectra of doped , and single crystals, grown by the flux method, are reported. A simulation of the energy level scheme is carried out. The effective Hamiltonian includes elementary interactions such as coulombic, spin-orbit, two- and three-body interactions. The crystal field effect is introduced through the five non-zero crystal field parameters allowed by the symmetry site occupied by the rare earth. A simulation is performed on the 96 (102, 90) experimental energy levels of , (, ) with a good rms standard deviation of 16.2 (15.4, 15.7) . It is noteworthy that the energy level scheme of is reported for the first time. The wave functions of the systems are used for the calculation of the magnetic factor g. These factors are in good agreement with the values deduced from EPR measurements on the lowest level . The crystal field parameters are also compared to the a priori parameters calculated using the simple overlap model and the correlated crystal field strength is also analysed.