Growth and EPR properties of HoVO4 single crystals

• Good quality HoVO4 single crystals were grown by the Czochralski method.
• HoVO4 EPR and PL spectra revealed V4+ ions contribution besides Ho3+ ions.
• Angular dependences of EPR spectra have shown C3 local symmetry of Ho3+ ions.

HoVO4 single crystals were grown by the Czochralski method. The crystals were transparent. EPR spectra of the well oriented crystals were recorded as a function of the applied magnetic field. Besides Ho3+, V4+ ions were detected. EPR-NMR program was applied to find spin Hamiltonian parameters of Ho3+ ions. Absorption, excitation and photoluminescence spectra were measured, revealing the presence of electronic transitions characteristic for Ho3+ ions.