Growth and spectroscopic properties of Yb3+-doped Sc2O3 crystals grown by the micro-pulling-down method

Room temperature absorption and fluorescent emissions were investigated for Yb3+-doped Sc2O3, which were grown by the micro-pulling-down (μ-PD) method. The decay time for infrared Yb3+ (2F5/2) fluorescence was 561 μs in the case of 0.5% Yb3+-doped Sc2O3. It is observed that this value increases slightly when the Yb3+ concentration becomes 10 times higher (593 μs for 5%). We understand that it is due to self-trapping effect.