Influence of Nd dopants on lattice parameters and thermal and elastic properties in YVO4 single crystals

The influence of neodymium doping on YVO4 single crystals has been studied. The crystals were grown by the Czochralski method. One of them was pure YVO4 and the others were doped with neodymium (YVO4:Nd) at various concentrations of Nd = 0.3–3.0 at.%. The changes of the lattice parameters were determined by the Bond's method [W.L. Bond, Acta Cryst. 13 (1960) 814]. The thermal diffusivity and the velocity of ultrasound using the photothermal method with mirage effect and the pulse echo method [J. Bodzenta, M. Pyka, J. Phys. IV France 137 (2006) 259] were measured. In the examined crystals, it was found that the lattice parameters increase while the thermal diffusivity decreases with increasing concentration of Nd atoms.