Infrared and Zeeman effect measurements of ferromagnetically coupled Nd3+ ions in weakly doped LiYF4 crystals Original Research Article

Crystal-field infrared active excitations and photoluminescence of Nd3+ ions in weakly doped LiYF4 have confirmed that the concentration dependent satellite lines accompanying the Nd3+ crystal-field optical transitions are due to four ferromagnetically coupled pairs of Nd3+ ions in undistorted Y3+ sites with the exchange energies J1=0.9, J2=1.6, J3=3.1 and J4=4.5 cm−1, respectively. A linear Zeeman splitting of the Nd3+ ion 4F3/2→4I9/2 transition is observed and the g-factors (g∥=0.2±0.1; g⊥=0.97±0.01) associated with the 4F3/2 lowest level are determined.