Optical transmission and transition properties of lanthanide doped highly transparent Y2Zr2O7 ceramics

Obtaining detailed transmission and transition parameters of transparent materials is of vital importance for photonic engineering applications. In this work, we prepare a series of lanthanide active ions (Ln, Ln = Nd, Sm, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm) doped Y2Zr2O7 (YZO) transparent ceramics through solid-state reaction method without any sintering aids, and its transmittance is very close to the theoretical limit. The Ln activator doping dependent refractive index, Abbe number, and theoretical transmission are investigated detailedly. Besides, the J-O intensity parameters Omega i (i = 2, 4, 6) of the prepared transparent YZO:Ln ceramics are obtained using J-O theory, and we elaborate on how the corresponding factors determine the variation of these parameters. Furthermore, combining theoretical calculations and spectroscopy characterization, this work provides a valuable reference of spectroscopic properties, such as spontaneous transition prob-abilities, radiation lifetime, and fluorescence branch ratio, in transparent lanthanide zirconate ceramics. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.