Optical absorption intensities of trivalent erbium in a 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) polymeric host

Abstract The standard Judd–Ofelt model has been applied to the room temperature absorption intensities of Er 3+ (4f 11 ) transitions in a plastic host 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, referred to as HEMA, to determine the three phenomenological intensity parameters: Ω 2 , Ω 4 , and Ω 6 . Values are used to determine the spectroscopic quality factor for Er 3+ in HEMA and are compared to those for Er 3+ in crystalline hosts. The intensity parameters are subsequently used to determine the radiative decay rates and branching ratios of the Er 3+ transitions from the upper multiplet manifolds to the corresponding lower-lying multiplet manifolds 2 S +1 L J of Er 3+ (4f 11 ) in HEMA. Using the radiative decay rates for Er 3+ (4f 11 ) transitions between the corresponding excited states and the lower-lying states, the radiative lifetimes of eight excited states are determined.