Crystal growth and optical properties of LuYAG:Ce single crystal

Crystals of Ce3+-doped (LuxY1−x)3Al5O12 (LuYAG) have been grown and studied by X-ray powder diffraction, emission spectroscopy, excitation spectroscopy and X-ray excited fluorescence spectroscopy. The X-ray powder diffraction pattern revealed that the as-grown LuYAG:Ce crystal possessed the garnet structure. Compared with Ce3+-doped Y3Al5O12 (YAG), the absorption bands associated with the 4f–5d transition shifted to shorter wavelengths, the emission band that originated from a transition from the lowest 5d level to the 2F ground state of the Ce3+ ions shifted to the blue, which was probably due to a larger Stokes shift of the emission, and the reduction of relative intensity of antisite defect emission in the X-ray excited fluorescence spectra revealed that introducing Lu ions into YAG could reduce the antisite defect.

► The first spectral research on introducing Lu ions in YAG to reduce the antisite defect.
► A larger Stokes shift of the emission occurred.
► We found that 305 nm absorption band in LuYAG:Ce crystals was attributed to heterovalent color centers, not F-type centers.