X-ray Excitation Triggers Ytterbium Anomalous Emission in CaF:Yb but Not in SrF:Yb.

Materials that luminesce after excitation with ionizing radiation are extensively applied in physics, medicine, security, and industry. Lanthanide dopants are known to trigger crystal scintillation through their fast d-f emissions; the same is true for other important applications as lasers or phosphors for lighting. However, this ability can be seriously compromised by unwanted anomalous emissions often found with the most common lanthanide activators.

The determination of dopant ion valence distributions in insulating crystals using XANES measurements.

Ytterbium-doped wide-bandgap fluoride crystals CaF2, SrF2 and NaMgF3 have been measured using x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) on the L3 edge to determine the ratio of trivalent to divalent Yb ions present in the crystals. This study improves upon previous XANES measurements of dopant ion valency by taking into account the x-ray emission transition probabilities for the divalent and trivalent species instead of simply assuming that the relative concentrations may be determined by the ratio of the x-ray excitation band areas. Trivalent to divalent ratios as high as 5 are inferred even at low total dopant ion concentrations of 0.

Comprehensive Spectroscopic Determination of the Crystal Field Splitting in an Erbium Single-Ion Magnet.

The electronic structure of a novel lanthanide-based single-ion magnet, {C(NH2)3}5[Er(CO3)4]·11H2O, was comprehensively studied by means of a large number of different spectroscopic techniques, including far-infrared, optical, and magnetic resonance spectroscopies. A thorough analysis, based on crystal field theory, allowed an unambiguous determination of all relevant free ion and crystal field parameters. We show that inclusion of methods sensitive to the nature of the lowest-energy states is essential to arrive at a correct description of the states that are most relevant for the static and dynamic magnetic properties.

Effective Hamiltonian parameters for ab initio energy-level calculations of SrCl2:Yb2+ and CsCaBr3:Yb2+.

Calculated energy levels from recent ab initio studies of the electronic structure of SrCl2:Yb(2+) and CsCaBr3:Yb(2+) are fitted with a semi-empirical 'crystal-field' Hamiltonian, which acts within the model space 4f(14) + 4f(13)5d + 4f(13)6s. Parameters are obtained for the minima of the potential energy curves for each energy level and also for a range of anion-cation separations. The parameters are compared with published parameters fitted to experimental data and to atomic calculations.

Extraction of crystal-field parameters for lanthanide ions from quantum-chemical calculations.

A simple method for constructing effective Hamiltonians for the 4f(N) and 4f(N - 1)5d energy levels of lanthanide ions in crystals from quantum-chemical calculations is presented. The method is demonstrated by deriving crystal-field and spin-orbit parameters for Ce(3 + ) ions doped in LiYF(4), Cs(2)NaYCl(6), CaF(2), KY(3)F(10) and YAG host crystals from quantum-chemical calculations based on the DV-Xα method. Good agreement between calculated and fitted values of the crystal-field parameters is obtained.

Electronic spectra of Cs2NaYbF6 and crystal field analyses of YbX6(3-) (X = F, Cl, Br).

Detailed analysis of the vibronic structure in the electronic absorption spectrum of Cs2NaYbF6 at temperatures between 10 and 300 K enables the crystal field energy level diagram of Yb3+ in this cubic host to be deduced. Ultraviolet and visible laser excitation of Cs2NaYbF6, Cs2NaY(0.9)Yb(0.

Electronic structure of U3+ in Cs3Lu2Cl9 and Cs3Y2I9 single crystals.

Low-temperature emission and polarized absorption spectra have been recorded for U(3+) ions diluted in Cs(3)Lu(2)Cl(9) and Cs(3)Y(2)I(9) host crystals. The experimental crystal-field levels were fitted to 13 parameters of a semiempirical Hamiltonian representing the combined atomic, one-electron crystal field (CF) as well as two-particle correlation crystal-field (CCF) operators. The red shift of the first f-d transitions from approximately 14,800 cm(-1) in the spectrum of U(3+):Cs(3)Lu(2)Cl(9) to as low as 11,790 cm(-1) in that of U(3+):Cs(3)Y(2)I(9) has been attributed to an increase in the covalence of the U(3+)-X(-) bonds.

General calculation of 4f-5d transition rates for rare-earth ions using many-body perturbation theory.

The 4f-5d transition rates for rare-earth ions in crystals can be calculated with an effective transition operator acting between model 4f(N) and 4f(N-1)5d states calculated with effective Hamiltonian, such as semiempirical crystal Hamiltonian. The difference of the effective transition operator from the original transition operator is the corrections due to mixing in transition initial and final states of excited configurations from both the center ion and the ligand ions. These corrections are calculated using many-body perturbation theory.

Calculation of single-beam two-photon absorption rate of lanthanides: effective operator method and perturbative expansion.

Perturbative contributions to single-beam two-photon transition rates may be divided into two types. The first, involving low-energy intermediate states, require a high-order perturbation treatment, or an exact diagonalization. The other, involving high-energy intermediate states, only require a low-order perturbation treatment.

Conservation of connectivity of model-space effective interactions under a class of similarity transformation.

Effective interaction operators usually act on a restricted model space and give the same energies (for Hamiltonian) and matrix elements (for transition operators, etc.) as those of the original operators between the corresponding true eigenstates. Various types of effective operators are possible.

Simplified diagrammatic expansion for effective operators.

For a quantum many-body problem, effective Hamiltonians that give exact eigenvalues in reduced model space usually have different expressions, diagrams, and evaluation rules from effective transition operators that give exact transition matrix elements between effective eigenvectors in reduced model space. By modifying these diagrams slightly and considering the linked diagrams for all the terms of the same order, we find that the evaluation rules can be made the same for both effective Hamiltonian and effective transition operator diagrams, and in many cases it is possible to combine many diagrams into one modified diagram. We give the rules to evaluate these modified diagrams and show their validity.