Near infrared luminescence properties of the laser material Cr:Y2SiO5

Abstract We report spectroscopic investigations of the near infrared (NIR) laser center in chromium doped Y 2 SiO 5 (YSO). A comprehensive study including polarized absorption and emission spectra, and the temperature dependence of the fluorescence decay time and the integrated emission intensity is presented. In addition, we performed high resolution excitation and emission measurements. The results are most consistent with the NIR center being attributed to Cr 4+ in a distorted tetrahedral site. The assignment of the energy levels and the identification of the metastable level responsible for the NIR laser action will be discussed in detail. The measurements further show that Cr: YSO does not contain octahedrally coordinated Cr 3+ which is in contrast to Cr : YAG and Cr : forsterite. In this sense, Cr: YSO can be regarded as a model system for studying the optical properties of the new NIR center.

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