Luminescence of lanthanide ions in strontium barium niobate

Single crystals of strontium barium niobate, SrxBa1-xNb2O6, doped with the lanthanide ions Pr3+, Nd3+, Eu3+, Er3+ and Yb3+, were grown for x in the range 0.33-0.75 using the flux growth technique. Emission and excitation spectra were recorded in the visible and near infrared range at room and low temperatures. The spectral bands are strongly affected by inhomogeneous broadening due to the intrinsic disorder of the host. The 10 K optical spectra for the Eu3+ ion are attributed to the occupation of a single class of sites, tentatively identified as the distorted octahedral Nb5+ sites.