β-Barium borate is an important material commonly used in lasers due to nonlinear optical properties. This work concentrates on analyzing properties of lanthanide-doped β-barium borate.
The samples were produced using solid-state synthesis. The precursors included barium carbonate, boric acid, europium (III) oxide. Before the synthesis, stoichiometric amounts of reagents were mixed in agate mortar. After that the powders were sintered two times for 1 hour in 800 °C temperature in air.
The produced samples were firstly analyzed using X-ray diffractometer to check the purity of the powders. Only the specimen doped with 16% europium showed impurities which were identified as α-barium borate. The crystal unite cell of β-barium borate was refined using Rietveld method (Fig. 1). The optical properties of the europium-doped samples were checked using photoluminescence spectrometer. Europium(III)-doped samples exhibited expected phosphorence in the red part of the visible spectrum with strongest emission in 702 nm wavelength when excited by 393 nm wavelength light.
