Abstract

Sensitization of emission of weakly absorbing rare-earth ions in crystals by co-doping with other ions is regarded as a possible means to increase the efficiency of sold-state lasers. Requirements for the sensitizer ion (S) are a good absorption of the pump radiation and an efficient transfer to the rare-earth activator (A). Usually the systems of activator or sensitizer ions are considered as homogeneous, i.e., each member of these systems occupies identical sites, characterized by the same crystal field symmetry and strength. Moreover, in most cases a single D-A interaction mechanism is assumed.

© 1994 IEEE