Abstract:
Intracenter energy losses at the 4I11/2–4I13/2 laser transition have been studied which
result from the multiphonon nonradiative relaxation for Er3+ ions in a number of crystals with
the garnet structure. It is shown that in the scandium-aluminum garnet these losses are twice
lower than in the yttrium-aluminum garnet and in the gadolinium-gallium and yttrium-gallium
garnets they are an order-of-magnitude lower. It may be explained by a lowering of frequencies
of phonons which are active for the given transition due to growth of the mass of an ion which replaces Al3+ in the garnet lattice and it is confirmed by a stronger temperature
dependence of quenching in the gadolinium-gallium garnet. Mixed scandium-aluminum and
gallium garnets with a high Er3+ content are suggested to use as more efficient matrices for
lasers emitting at the wavelength about 3 μ.