Spectroscopic properties of Er3+ and Eu3+ doped acentric LaBO3 and GdBO3

Abstract

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 ∼1535 nm are shown to exhibit multiple narrow linewidth emissions. Luminescence from the D05→7F1, F27 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+ D25 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 I6 manifold, and the rarely seen D6 levels. Excitation of the D7/26 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.