Thermal and Optical Properties of Yb3+-Doped Y2O3 Single Crystal Grown by the Micro-Pulling-Down Method

Abstract

Refractory rare-earth sesquioxides (RE2O3, RE = Y, Lu, Sc) are promising host materials for solid-state lasers due to low phonon energy and high thermal conductivity. In this work, we investigated thermodynamic properties of Yb3+-doped Y2O3 single crystals, doping level ≤15 mol % Yb3+ grown by the micro-pulling-down method (µ-PD). The thermal diffusivity lowers with increasing Yb3+ content from 7.2 to 2.37 ×10-6 m2 s-1, heat capacity from 0.44 to 0.403 J g-1 K-1, and thermal conductivity from 15.94 to 5.35 W m-1 K-1. Spectroscopic data are discussed.