Growth, structure, thermal properties and spectroscopic characteristics of Nd3+-doped KGdP4O12 crystal

Tongqing Sun; Yu Zhang; Pai Shan; Zichang Zhang; Shaolin Chen; Yongfa Kong; Jingjun Xu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100922

Growth, structure, thermal properties and spectroscopic characteristics of Nd3+-doped KGdP4O12 crystal

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 26;9(6):e100922. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100922. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Tongqing Sun¹, Yu Zhang², Pai Shan², Zichang Zhang², Shaolin Chen³, Yongfa Kong⁴, Jingjun Xu⁴

Affiliations

¹ The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China; School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
² School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
³ The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China; TEDA Applied Physics Institute, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
⁴ The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China; School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China; TEDA Applied Physics Institute, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

A single crystal of Nd3+-doped KGdP4O12 was successfully grown with the top-seeded solution growth and slow cooling (TSSG-SC) technique. It crystallizes in space group C2/c with cell parameters a = 7.812(2) Å, b = 12.307(3) Å, c = 10.474(2) Å, β = 110.84(3)° and Z = 4. The IR and Raman spectra also indicated that the phosphoric polyhedra of Nd:KGdP4O12 has a cyclic symmetry. The chemical composition of the crystal was analyzed and the distribution coefficient of Nd3+ was calculated. The crystal morphology of KGdP4O12 was identified using X-ray diffraction. The compound has good thermal stability to 920°C. Its specific heat and thermal conductivity were determined for potential applications. The spectral properties of Nd:KGdP4O12 indicates that it exhibits broad absorption and emission bands, which are attributed to low symmetry of the crystal. The broad absorption band around 798 nm has a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 14.8 nm and is suitable for AlGaAs laser diode pumping. Moreover, 5 at% Nd3+-doped KGdP4O12 crystal has a long luminescence lifetime of 300 μs and a high quantum efficiency of 96%.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Crystallization*
Lasers, Semiconductor*
Molecular Structure
Spectrum Analysis
Thermodynamics

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21271109) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (65122011). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.