Magnetism and optical properties of Yb3Al5O12 hosted Er3+ – experiment and theory.

Using the recently developed method based on a combination of DFT plane wave code applied to extract the crystal field parameters and a local atomic like Hamiltonian involving electron-electron, spin-orbit and Zeeman terms we calculated the energy levels of ground and excited multiplets of Yb3+ and Er3+ ions hosted in ytterbium and yttrium aluminum garnet (YbAG and YAG) including their crystal and magnetic field splitting. The obtained energy levels and derived magnetic properties are compared with the experimental data from magnetometry, photoluminiscence and near-infrared spectroscopy. Image 1 • Optical and magnetic properties of Er3+ doped ytterbium-aluminium garnet were assessed using a combined theoretical and experimental approach. • Crystal field parameters for Er3+ and Yb3+ were calculated using DFT method and further used to obtain the ground and excited state energies. • Optical and magnetic properties derived from the calculated energies are in nice agreement with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]