Spectroscopic and magneto-optical properties of novel bifunctional Nd,Er: CeF₃ crystal

In this study, we report a successful Bridgman growth of Nd3+ and Er3+ co-doped CeF3 (Nd,Er:CeF3) single crystal with a size of o25 mm x 30 mm. The absorption and fluorescence characteristics of the Nd,Er:CeF3 crystal were studied systematically. The results show that the fluorescence emission peaks were positioned at 547, 669, 1062.6, and 1542.6 nm, respectively. The fluorescence lifetimes centered at 1062.6 and 1542.6 nm for Nd3+ and Er3+ were 0.313 and 1.12 ms, respectively. Meanwhile, the spectroscopic properties of Nd,Er:CeF3 crystals were investigated based on the Judd-Ofelt theory. Notably, the magneto-optical performance of the Nd,Er:CeF3 crystal was investigated for the first time. The Verdet constants of the Nd,Er:CeF3 crystal at 532, 632.8, 1064, and 1310 nm are 220.3, 142.4, 40.7, and 23.1 rad T-1 m-1, respectively, which are significantly higher than those of undoped CeF3 and traditional Tb3Ga5O12. The results show that Nd,Er:CeF3 is a bifunctional crystal with po-tential applications in laser and magneto-optical fields.