“…Rare earth compounds, such as oxides, phosphates, fluorides, vanadates, tungstates and molybdates have been extensively studied owing to their potential applications in high performance magnets, luminescent devices, catalysts, and other functional materials based on the electronic, optical, and chemical characteristics arising from the 4f electrons of rare earth ions [10,[17][18][19][20][21][22]. Among these compounds, rare earth fluorides evoke more attention because of their unique properties including high refractive index and low phonon energy.…”