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Collective phenomena in Dy-doped silver halides in the near- and mid-IR
The kinetics of the electronic transitions within the f -shell of Dy3+ ions were studied
with monitoring near- and mid-IR luminescence decay under pulsed laser excitation at 1.3 μm.
The luminescence decay curves were found to be profoundly non-exponential in all bands in the
range between 1.3-5.5 μm. Such behavior is attributed to cross-relaxation and up-conversion
processes dominating in relaxation of Dy3+ ions from the laser-excited multiplet 6H9-2+6F11-2.
We suggest that strong collective phenomena occurring under relatively low concentrations are
due to anomalous clustering of Dy3+ ions. The cross-relaxation enables an efficient population of
6H13-2 and 6H11-2 multiplets, offering this material as an active medium for a 3-μm and 4.3-μm
lasers.