Growth and high resolution spectroscopic investigation of YAB:Tm crystal

Abstract Tm-doped YAB single crystals were grown by the top-seeded flux technique. High resolution (0.04 cm −1 ) Fourier transform spectroscopy was employed to determine the term diagram of Tm 3+ ions in YAB. Six transitions were identified from the 3 H 6 ground state of the Tm 3+ ions to the 3 F 4 , 3 H 5 , 3 H 4 , 3 F 3 , 3 F 2 , and 1 G 4 manifolds. All of their Stark components were assigned by using the temperature dependence (9–100 K) of the absorption lines. The low temperature spectra consists of sharp lines, broadened ones and those split to components. These features may be attributed to Tm–Tm interaction and optical hyperfine structure.