Raman, photoluminescence and infrared studies of Nd2O3-A polytype pell
ets are undertaken in order to study further the phonon-crystal field
coupling of the Nd3+ ion that has been observed in NdBa2Cu3O7-x and Nd
2CuO4+delta. We conclude that symmetry considerations and closeness in
frequency do not guarantee the existence of an interaction. On the ot
her hand the 3-4 cm(-1) splittings of Kramers doublets observed in Nd2
CuO4+delta is detected in Nd2O3 for magnetic fields of few Tesla corro
borating thus the predicted local magnetic field magnitude due to the
Cu polarization field on the Nd3+ sites.