Optical properties of LiNbO3:Cr crystals co-doped with germanium oxide

In this work, we extended the investigation on the effect of co-dopant ions in Cr:LiNbO3 to tetravalent cation such as GeO2. A singularity in the relative intensity of the 4A2→4T1 and 4A2→4T2 absorption band was observed for a concentration of ∼1.5 mol%, compared with 4.5 mol% for Mg2+. The photoluminescence emission spectra also reveal a new emission band, at a lower energy than the [Cr]Li centre, corresponding to this threshold concentration. A charge compensation model is proposed to explain the role of cation impurities and results are compared with those of other valence impurities.