Abstract

Laser emission at two wavelengths from two different active ions present in a given crystal could be limited by inter-system energy transfer processes. Such cases are (Nd³⁺, Er³⁺) YAG and YAlO₃ crystals, where ⁴F_3/2 Nd³⁺ emission efficiency is strongly reduced in presence of Er³⁺. A recent work on these systems^[1] revealed some peculiarities of ⁴F_3/2 luminescence decays, explained by inter-system energy transfer: a fast drop at early times (connected with a short range interaction, additional to the dipole-dipole one, inside several Nd³⁺ - Er³⁺ close pairs) and (in case of YAlO₃) a dependence of the decay on the excitation wavelength. Due to the high Nd³⁺ content (~1 at. %) of the investigated samples, Nd³⁺ - Nd³⁺ transfer processes are also active.

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