Growth and anisotropic spectral properties of Er:YAlO3 crystal

A high quality Er3+-doped YAlO3 single crystal has been successfully grown with the Czochralski method by a radio-frequency heating system. The polarized absorption and polarized fluorescence spectra are measured at room temperature. The effective phenomenological intensity parameters are obtained by analysis of the polarized absorption spectra with Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory, and the results are: Omega(2.eff) = 2.83 x 10(-20) cm(2), Omega(4,eff) = 1.39 x 10(-20) cm(2), and Omega(6,eff) = 1.29 x 10(-20) cm(2). The spontaneous emission probabilities, fluorescence branching ratio and radiative lifetime of Er3+ ions in YAP crystal are calculated with the obtained parameters. The polarized emission cross-sections of the I-4(13/2) -> I-4(15/2) transition are calculated by both the Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg formula and the reciprocity method, and the results are compared. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.