Stark splitting scheme and an induced emission cross section of TbAlO3

Detailed absorption and emission spectra on TbAlO3 are measured at room temperature and liquid-nitrogen temperature. By decomposition of the spectra, the Stark splitting scheme is established for F76, F75, and D54 multiplets of Tb3+ ions in TbAlO3 together with the peak energies in the Fourier transform infrared spectrum at liquid-nitrogen temperature. The multiplets are split into their maximum number of levels, which shows that the point symmetry is low for the Tb3+ ion site in TbAlO3. An induced emission cross section is estimated using the results of decomposition at liquid-nitrogen temperature to be 3.55×10−19 cm2. This value is comparable to the cross sections reported for Nd:Y3Al5O12, which is a well known solid-state laser material. The population inversion threshold is also estimated for TbAlO3 in comparison with Nd:Y3Al5O12. It is found that the threshold value for TbAlO3 is only about three times larger than that for Nd:Y3Al5O12. This TbAlO3 may have the potential to be a laser material with a visible wavelength at least at low temperature.