Spectroscopic properties of Er3+ and EU3+ doped acentric LaBO3 and GdBO3

This work studies the spectroscopic behavior of Eu3+-doped and Yb3+/Er3+-codoped single crystals of orthorhombic LaBO3 and rhombohedral GdBO3. Emissions from Er3+ at similar to1535 nm are shown to exhibit multiple narrow linewidth emissions. Luminescence from the D-5(0) --> F-7(1), F-7(2) transitions of Eu3+ is found to depend on the choice of LaBO3 or GdBO3 as a parent phase in a well-defined manner. Phonon sideband spectroscopy of the Eu3+5D2 excitation, corroborated using Raman spectroscopy, indicates that the highest energy phonon is less than 1400 cm(-1) for the LaBO3 and less than 1010 cm(-1) for the GdBO3. Further, absorption spectrum to 190 nm is provided for the GdBO3 clearly showing the I-6 manifold, and the rarely seen D-6 levels. Excitation of the D-6(7/2) state at 250 nm in GdBO3 is shown to yield a strong ultraviolet emission centered at 314 nm. This work marks the lanthanide borates as candidate single crystals for active and nonlinear materials for UV, visible, and telecommunication band applications. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.