Spectroscopic properties of Er/Nd co-doped yttrium lanthanum oxide transparent ceramics pumped at 980 nm

Abstract

(Er0.01NdxY0.89-xLa0.1)2O3 (x = 0, 0.001, 0.002, 0.005, 0.01) transparent ceramics were prepared by conventional ceramic processing. The Nd3+ content dependencies of mid-infrared, near infrared and up-conversion emission of Er3+ pumped at 980 nm were fully presented. Mechanism of energy transfer between Er3+ and Nd3+ was also demonstrated. The results showed that co-doping 0.1 at% Nd3+ into 1 at% Er3+ doped yttrium lanthanum oxide transparent ceramic enhanced the 2.7 μm emission significantly and meanwhile suppressed the 1.5 μm emission effectively which indicated an improvement in population inversion between Er:4I11/2 and Er:4I13/2. Moreover, green up-conversion emission of Er3+ ion also showed a great improvement by co-doping 0.1 at% Nd3+. Those great results were attributed to energy recycle from Er:4I13/2 to Er:4I11/2. The energy recycle was mainly built by the two energy transfer between Er3+ and Nd3+ (one is from Er to Nd, another is in opposite way). So, Er/Nd co-doped yttrium lanthanum oxide transparent ceramic with Nd in low concentration can be considered as a promising laser material for ∼3 μm and up-conversion laser application.