Optical spectroscopy of Yb2Ti2O7 and Y2Ti2O7: Yb3+ and crystal-field parameters in rare-earth titanate pyrochlores

Optical absorption spectra of the Yb2Ti2O7 single crystals and luminescence spectra of the Y2Ti 2O7:Yb (1%) polycrystalline samples were registered at temperatures 4.2-300 K. These spectra and earlier published data on magnetic properties of Yb3+ ions and on the temperature dependence of the electric field gradient at Yb nuclei in Yb2Ti2O 7 were used to analyze the crystal-field parameters in rare-earth titanates with the pyrochlore structure. The self-consistent sets of crystal-field parameters for rare-earth ions in the 16d sites with the D 3d symmetry that describe satisfactory all known single-ion magnetic properties and low-energy excitations in R2Ti2O 7 crystals (R=Tb, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb) are presented