Spectroscopic and crystal-field analysis of new Yb-doped laser materials

Crystal-held effects are very important as far as laser performances of Yb- doped materials are concerned. In order to simplify the interpretation of l ow-temperature spectra, two tools derived from a careful examination of cry stal-field interaction are presented. Both approaches are successfully appl ied in the case of new Yb-doped materials, namely Ca3Y2(BO3)(4) (CYB), Ca3G d2(BO3)(4) (CaGB), Sr3Y(BO3)(3) (SrYBO), Ba3Lu(BO3)(3) (BLuB), Y2SiO5 (YSO) , Ca2Al2SiO7 (CAS) and SrY4(SiO4)(3)O (SYS). The F-2(7/2) Splitting is part icularly large in these materials and favourable to a quasi-three-level las er operating scheme. Calculations performed using the point charge electros tatic model for these compounds and using a consistent set of effective ato mic charges confirm the experimental results. This should permit to use thi s model in a predictive approach.