Optical transitions, absorption intensities, and intermanifold emission cross sections of Pr3+(4f2) in Ca5(PO4)3F crystal host

A spectroscopic Judd-Ofelt investigation has been performed on Pr3+ ions doped in calcium fluorapatite, Ca-5(PO4)(3)F, belonging to the apatite structure family. The standard Judd-Ofelt analysis was applied to the room temperature absorption intensities of Pr3+ transitions to determine the phenomenological intensity parameters: Omega(2), Omega(4), and Omega(6). Values of the intensity parameters were subsequently used to determine the decay rates (emission probabilities), radiative lifetimes, and branching ratios of the principal intermanifold transitions of Pr3+ from the P-3(2), D-1(2), and P-3(0) manifold states to the lower-lying manifolds. In addition, the room temperature fluorescence lifetimes and emission cross sections of the P-3(2)-->H-3(5), D-1(2)-->H-3(4), and P-3(0)-->F-3(2) transitions were measured; these values were compared with those of Nd3+:yttritium-aluminum-garnet and Pr3+:Sr-5(PO4)(3) (known as S-FAP). (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.