Thermal and optical properties of Yb3+-doped Y2O3 single crystal grown by the micro-pulling-down method

Refractory rare-earth sesquioxides (RE2O3, RE = Y, Lu, Sc) are promising host materials for solid-state lasers due to low phonon energy and high thermal conductivity. In this work, we investigated thermodynamic properties of Yb3+-doped Y2O3 single crystals, doping level <= 15 mol % Yb3+ grown by the micro-pulling-down method ( mu-PD). The thermal diffusivity lowers with increasing Yb3+ content from 7.2 to 2.37 x 10(-6) m(2) s(-1), heat capacity from 0.44 to 0.403Jg(-1) K-1, and thermal conductivity from 15.94 to 5.35 Wm(-1) K-1. Spectroscopic data are discussed.