Spectroscopic properties and structure refinement of Nd3+:(Y0.9La0.1)2O3 transparent ceramics

• (NdxY0.9−xLa0.1)2O3 transparent ceramics were fabricated by conventional solid state reaction processing.
• The ceramic exhibits high transparency and dense structure with almost no pores.
• The ceramic has broad absorption and emission bandwidth.
• The crystal structure properties were investigated by Rietveld refinement.

(NdxY0.9−xLa0.1)2O3 (x = 0.01–0.04) transparent ceramics were fabricated by conventional solid state reaction processing. Spectroscopic properties and crystal structures were investigated. (Nd0.01Y0.89La0.1)2O3 ceramics display high transparency and dense structure with almost no pores. The highest transmittance reaches 80%. The absorption at LD wavelength 806 nm is high with broad full width at half maximum (FWHM) of about 6 nm. The strongest emission peak is centered at 1078 nm with broad FWHM of about 9 nm and the stimulated emission cross section is 4.97 × 10−20 cm2. The crystal structure was obtained via Rietveld refinement. It is found that (NdxY0.9−xLa0.1)2O3 crystallize in space group of Ia3¯, Z = 16. The lattice parameters and average bond lengths are increased with the increase of La2O3 and Nd2O3 contents.