Raman-Spectroscopic Evidence For Isomorphous Structure Of Gdlif4 And Ylif4 Laser Crystals

Lattice vibrations of oriented GdLiF4 and YLiF4 single crystals are studied by polarized Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra show identical symmetry properties in both materials implying that the vibrational modes of the new laser crystal GdLiF4 have the same irreducible representation of the point group as in YLiF4. The substitution of Gd3+ for Y3+ causes isotropic shifts for most of the modes and makes it possible for the assignment and separation of external modes from the internal modes. Potential applications of GdLiF4 as a laser host are discussed