Optical-absorption intensities of trivalent neodymium in the uniaxial crystal yttrium orthovanadate

Abstract

The Judd-Ofelt (JO) theory was applied to optical-absorption transitions in Nd+3 : YVO4 to obtain intensity parameters (Ω2=5.88×10−20 cm2; Ω4=4.08×10−20 cm2; Ω6=5.11×10−20 cm2) and the radiative lifetime (152 μs) and quantum efficiency (0.72) of the 4F3/2 state. The variations of the absorptions with respect to the optic axis measured for Nd+3 in a uniaxial crystal were taken into account in applying the JO theory. In addition, transition-matrix elements using new intermediate-coupling coefficients were obtained and used in the JO fitting procedure.