Single crystal growth and investigation of optical and ESR absorption spectra of zirconium-doped YAG

Single crystals of yttrium aluminium garnet doped with zirconium ions (Y3Al5O12:Zr, YAG:Zr) are grown from the melt and their optical and ESR absorption spectra are investigated. It is established that the color centers and paramagnetic centers have an identical nature being caused by Zr3+ ions in dodechahedrical sites of the garnet lattice. The experimental results are interpreted in the approximation of crystal field and molecular orbital theories. [Russian Text Ignored].