Yttrium orthovanadate (YVO₄) is a transparent crystal. Undoped YVO₄ is also used to make efficient high-power polarizing prisms similar to

Glan–Taylor prism A Glan–Taylor prism is a type of prism which is used as a polarizer or polarizing beam splitter. It is one of the most common types of modern polarizing prism. It was first described by Archard and Taylor in 1948. The prism is made of two r ...

s. There are two principal applications for doped Yttrium orthovanadate: *Doped with

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth metals. It is a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarnishes i ...

it forms Nd:YVO₄, an

active laser medium The active laser medium (also called gain medium or lasing medium) is the source of optical gain within a laser. The gain results from the stimulated emission of photons through electronic or molecular transitions to a lower energy state from a h ...

used in

diode-pumped solid-state laser A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a solid-state laser made by pumping a solid gain medium, for example, a ruby or a neodymium-doped YAG crystal, with a laser diode. DPSSLs have advantages in compactness and efficiency over other types ...

s. *Doped with

europium Europium is a chemical element with the symbol Eu and atomic number 63. Europium is the most reactive lanthanide by far, having to be stored under an inert fluid to protect it from atmospheric oxygen or moisture. Europium is also the softest lanth ...

it forms Eu:YVO₄, the dominant red

phosphor A phosphor is a substance that exhibits the phenomenon of luminescence; it emits light when exposed to some type of radiant energy. The term is used both for fluorescent or phosphorescent substances which glow on exposure to ultraviolet or vi ...

used in

cathode ray tubes A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictur ...

especially in color TVs.

Basic properties

Crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystal, crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric pat ...

: **

Zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of the r ...

tetragonal In crystallography, the tetragonal crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Tetragonal crystal lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along one of its lattice vectors, so that the cube becomes a rectangular prism with a square ...

( tetragonal bipyramidal) ** Space group D_4h ** Lattice parameters ''a'' = ''b'' = 7.119 Å, ''c'' = 6.290 Å *

Density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

: 4.24 g/cm³ *

Melting point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends ...

: 1810–1940 °C *

Mohs hardness The Mohs scale of mineral hardness () is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material. The scale was introduced in 1812 by th ...

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

-like, ~5 *

Knoop hardness The Knoop hardness test is a microhardness test – a test for mechanical hardness used particularly for very brittle materials or thin sheets, where only a small indentation may be made for testing purposes. A pyramidal diamond point is pressed i ...

: 480 kg/mm² *

Thermal expansion coefficient Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape, area, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature, usually not including phase transitions. Temperature is a monotonic function of the average molecular kinetic ...

: ** α_a = 4.43×10⁻⁶/ K ** α_c = 11.37×10⁻⁶/K *

Thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal conductivity than in materials of high thermal ...

coefficient: **parallel to ''c''-axis: 5.23 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ **perpendicular to ''c''-axis: 5.10 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ *

Refractive indices In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or ...

birefringence Birefringence is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are said to be birefringent (or birefractive). The birefring ...

( Δ''n'' = ''n''_e - ''n''_o) and walk-off angle at 45° (ρ): **at 0.63 μm: ***''n''_e = 2.2154 ***''n''_o = 1.9929 ***Δ''n'' = 0.2225 ***''ρ'' = 6.04 **at 1.30 μm: ***''n''_e = 2.1554 ***''n''_o = 1.9500 ***Δ''n'' = 0.2054 ***''ρ''= 5.72 **at 1.55 μm: ***''n''_e = 2.1486 ***''n''_o = 1.9447 ***Δ''n'' = 0.2039 ***''ρ'' = 5.69 ** Sellmeier equation ( ''λ'' in μm): ***''n''_e²=4.59905 + 0.110534/(λ² − 0.04813) − 0.012267612 ''λ''² ***''n''_o²=3.77834 + 0.069736/(λ² − 0.04724) − 0.0108133 ''λ''²

References

{{Solid-state laser Vanadates Yttrium compounds Optical materials Crystals

Basic properties

See also

References