Optical transparency and local electronic structure of Yb-doped Y 2 O 3 ceramics with tetravalent additives

Abstract

The results of optical transmission and X-ray core-level spectra measurements of Yb:Y 2 O 3 ceramics with different tetravalent sintering additives (ZrO 2 , CeO 2 and HfO 2 ) fabricated from nanopowders (produced by the laser ablation method) and then annealed at 1400 °C in air for 2 h are presented. It is found that the transmission values for ZrO 2 - and HfO 2 -doped ceramics at the lasing wavelengths are higher than those of CeO 2 -doped samples. The X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) O 1s spectra show that the relative intensity of oxygen defect peak detected for 3Yb:Y 2 O 3 + 5CeO 2 ceramics decreases substantially and consistently compared to that of 5Yb:Y 2 O 3 + 5HfO 2 and 3Yb:Y 2 O 3 + 5ZrO 2 samples. This can be attributed to a more complete filling of oxygen vacancies due to annealing-induced oxygen diffusion into the highly defective sintered ceramics. The measurements of XPS Ce 3d spectra showed that the insufficiently complete filling of the oxygen vacancies in the 3Yb:Y 2 O 3 + 5CeO 2 compound is due to the appreciable presence of trivalent cerium ions.