The electronic level structure of lanthanide impurities in REPO4, REBO3, REAlO3, and RE2O3 (RE = La, Gd, Y, Lu, Sc) compounds

The vacuum referred binding energies of electrons in divalent and trivalent lanthanide impurity states and host band states in the rare earth (RE = La, Gd, Y, Lu, Sc) orthophosphates REPO4, orthoborates REBO3, aluminum perovskites REAlO3, and sesqui-oxides RE2O3 have been determined by combining the recently developed chemical shift model with spectroscopic data from the archival literature. The main trends in impurity and host band level locations with changing type of RE, which determines the site size, and with changing P, B, Al, or RE cation, which determines the strength of bonding with the oxygen ligands, are identified. Sc3+-based compounds are characterized by a relatively low energy for the conduction band bottom, or equivalently a high electron affinity, which is attributed to a relatively strong electron bonding in the 3d-shell of Sc2+.