DETERMINATION OF THE DISTRIBUTION COEFFICIENTS OF THE RARE-EARTH IONSER(3-STABILIZED C-ZRO2 SINGLE-CRYSTALS() AND ND(3+) IN YTTRIA)

We describe investigations of growth of cubic zirconium dioxide single crystals doped with rare-earth ions. The cubic phase is stabilized do wn to room temperature by adding 12 mole% Y2O3. The crystals are grown using the skull-melting technique. For colouring they are doped with Nd2O3 and Er2O3. We investigate the effective distribution coefficient of these dopants for crystals grown with growth velocities in the ran ge of 4 to 18 mm/h. From optical absorption data the dopant concentrat ion is calculated. The use of the Burton-Prim-Slichter (BPS) equation allows to estimate the equilibrium distribution coefficient of Nd3+(k0 = 0.43) and Er3+(k0 = 1.11) in cubic zirconium dioxide.