Crystal-field parameters for triply-ionized lanthanides in yttrium aluminium garnet

Previously reported spectra of triply-ionized lanthanides in YAG are analysed theoretically by diagonalizing a parametrized D 2 Hamiltonian in a free-ion wavefunction basis involving the lowest 10, 11, 9, 10 and 10 J-multiplets, respectively, of Nd, Eu, Tb, Dy and Er. The best-fit crystal-field parameters for all but Dy are then used to obtain a quadratically smoothed set of parameters for all the lanthanides. The smoothed set of parameters gives an RMS fit of 10.85 cm -1 for Dy compared with the best-fit parameters of 6.60 cm -1 .