Dopant distribution and energy transfer processes in crystals

This paper discusses the effects of the mutual asymmetric crystal held pert urbations produced by near active and sensitizer ions in co-doped crystals. It is shown that modification of the spectral and dynamic properties of th e perturbed ions justifies the division of the active and sensitizer ions s ystems in homogeneous subsystems and the particularities of energy transfer processes in these subsystems are presented. The discussion is illustrated for active rare earth ions in garnet crystals sensitized by Cr3+ (in octah edral sites), Fe3+ (in tetrahedral sites) or Yb3+ (in dodecahedral sites). It is thus shown that the emission in sensitized laser crystals manifests d ifferent spectral and temporal properties from crystals with simple activat ion. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.