Lasers and Excited States of Rare Earths

1. Analogies and Differences Between Monatomic Entities and Condensed Matter.- A. The Configuration 4fq as an Instance of Spherical Symmetry.- B. The "Ligand Field" as Minor Deviations from Spherical Symmetry.- C. Inter-shell Transitions to Empty 5d and 6s Orbitals.- D. Electron Transfer Bands, Including the Uranyl Ion.- References.- 2. Rare-Earth Lasers.- A. Introduction.- B. Spontaneous and Stimulated Emission.- C. Three-level Laser System.- D. Four-level Laser System.- E. Modes of Oscillation.- F. The Threshold of Optical Pumping.- G. Laser Output.- H. Examples of Rare Earth Lasers.- a) Liquid Rare Earth Lasers.- b) Generalities About Solid State Lasers.- c) Relaxation Processes in Solid State Lasers.- d) Crystal Rare Earth Lasers.- e) The Specific Case of Nd3+Crystal Lasers.- f) Laser Emission of Ho3+, Er3+ and Tm3+.- g) High-power Nd3+ Glass Lasers.- h) Nd-doped Glass Ceramic Laser.- i) Lasers from Vapours of Rare-Earth Compounds.- References.- 3. Chemical Bonding and Lanthanide Spectra.- A. The Nephelauxetic Effect and the Photo-electron Spectra.- B. The Intensities and the Hypersensitive Pseudoquadrupolar Transitions.- C. The Chemistry Behind the Judd-Ofelt Parametrization.- References.- 4. Energy Transfer.- A. Transfer Probabilities.- a) Resonance Energy Transfer.- b) Exchange Interaction.- c) Magnetic Interaction.- d) Electrostatic Interaction.- e) Statistical Aspects of Macroscopic Energy Transfer.- B. Migration of Excitation.- C. Inhomogeneous Broadening.- D. Phonon-assisted Energy Transfer.- E. Selected Examples and Suggestions.- a) Donors with Spin-forbidden 3d Transitions.- b) Post-transitional (Mercury-like) Donors with Laporte-allowed Transitions.- c) Electron Transfer Bands in Early Transition Elements as Donors.- d) Energy Transfer from the Uranyl Ion to Lanthanides.- e) Energy Transfer Between Lanthanides.- f) Processes of Infra-red to Visible Up-conversion.- g) Energy Transfer from Organic Ligands to Lanthanides.- h) Energy Transfer from Lanthanides to Other Species.- References.- 5. Applications and Suggestions.- A. The Standard Emission Spectrum of Opaque Objects (in Atomic Units).- B. Induced Thermonuclear Reactions.- C. Cathodoluminescence and Energy Dissipation from Rapid Elementary Particles and Fission Products.- D. Communications and Holography.- E. Geodesy and Trigonometry in the Solar System.- F. Antiferromagnetic Coupling with Adjacent Transition Group Ions.- G. Final Comments on Spectroscopy in Condensed Matter.- References.- 6. Subject Index.- 7. Author Index.