Fabrication of highly-transparent Er:CaF2 ceramics by hot-pressing technique

Abstract

Highly-transparent trivalent erbium ion doped calcium fluoride (5 mol % Er:CaF 2 ) ceramics were fabricated by a hotpressing (HP) method using high-purity Er:CaF 2 nanoparticles, which were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The mean grain size of the nanoparticles was about 24.7 nm. The nanoparticles were sintered at 600 • C, 700 • C, 800 • C and 900 • C, respectively, for 30 min under a uniaxial pressure of 30 MPa and vacuum of 10 −3 Pa with 1 mol % lithium fluoride (LiF) as sintering additive. The 5 mol % Er:CaF 2 ceramics sintered at 800 • C exhibits high density and pore-free microstructure with an average grain size of about 8 µm. The optical transmittance of the transparent ceramics is close to 85 % at visible and nearinfrared wavelengths. The strong and broad absorptions peaks corresponding to characteristic absorption of trivalent erbium ions make the ceramics a potential candidate for infrared and upconversion laser operating.

Effects of Nd Concentration on Microstructure and Optical Properties of Nd: CaF2 Transparent Ceramics

“…Besides, recently CaF 2 gained a renewed interest as a laser material when doped with RE ions . Many researchers have been devoted to the research of CaF 2 transparent ceramics and got some improvements, such as Yb: CaF 2 , Er: CaF 2 , and so on. Furthermore, fluoride materials may be another kind of promising materials in the solid‐laser application .…”

Mineral Nanomedicine to Enhance the Efficacy of Adjuvant Radiotherapy for Treating Osteosarcoma

“…Moreover, a small diffraction peak at 32.5°( i.e., assigned to the (200) plane) was observed for the samples with the Eu dopant, which was attributed to the fact that the structural factor of CaF 2 nanocrystals was altered by the Eu dopant. 18,19 Photoluminescence (PL), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses were performed to support further that Eu ions were successfully doped into the CaF 2 matrix (Figures S1−S3). The amount of Eu doped into the CaF 2 NPs was calculated using the data from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (Table S1).…”