Excited state dynamics and energy transfer processes in YVO4:Er3+ crystals

An extensive investigation of the fluorescence dynamics of the ${(}^2{H}_{\text{11/2}}{,}^4{S}_{\text{3/2}}\mathrm{),}$ ${}^4{F}_{\text{9/2}},$ ${}^4{I}_{\text{9/2}},$ ${}^4{I}_{\text{11/2}},$ and ${}^4{I}_{\text{13/2}}$ states was carried out for 0.1%, 1%, 2.5%, and 10% ${\mathrm{Er}}^{\mathrm{3+}}$ doped in ${\mathrm{YVO}}_{\mathrm{4}}.$ The decay profiles of the luminescence of the ${}^4{S}_{\text{3/2}}$ level of ${\mathrm{Er}}^{\mathrm{3+}}$ (1.0%) obey the Inokuti–Hirayama model for energy transfer for an electric dipole–electric dipole interaction in the absence of diffusion among the donors. From the analysis we were able to calculate the critical distance, $R_0,$ and it was found to be 5.7 Å: The dipole–dipole coupling parameter was estimated to be ${\text{2.9×10}}^{\text{−51}}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{m}}^{\mathrm{6}}{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}s}}^{\mathrm{-1}}$ and compared well to other well known systems.