Comparative study of spectroscopic properties of Pr³⁺-doped LiY<inf>0.3</inf>Lu<inf>0.7</inf>F<inf>4</inf>, LiYF<inf>4</inf> and LiLuF<inf>4</inf> crystals

© 2019 IEEE. Fluoride crystals are the most common host materials for visible lasers due to large energy band gap and low phonon energy. Among the rare-earth ions, the Pr3+ is very attractive ion for visible solid-state lasers. Efficient laser operation in Pr-doped crystals was obtained around 480 nm, 523 nm, 607 nm, 640 nm, 698 nm and 720 nm [1]. Mixed fluorides LiYxLux-1F4 crystals posses higher optical quality and require less expensive lutetium fluoride during growth in contrast to LiYF4 and LiLuF4, respectively. Moreover, in the case of Ce3+ and Nd3+ ions, the mixed fluorides have higher segregation coefficient comparing to both LiYF4 and LiLuF4 crystals [2, 3]. The optimal cationic composition is x = 0.6-0.7