Revisiting the luminescence properties of Pr3+: YAG within the framework of an extended approach of Judd-Ofelt theory

We show in this article the improvements which can be obtained in the description of the luminescence properties of Pr3+ doped materials by using an extension of the Judd-Ofelt theory in order to relax some strong selection rules and approximations of the standard formalism and to better account for the influence of the 4f5d excited electronic configuration. The demonstration is made by re-examining the case of Pr3+:YAG, a well known luminescent and laser crystal with a very low energy 4f5d absorption band. Our extension thus provides a better agreement between calculated and measured absorption intensities, especially for the hypersensitive 3 H4 → 3 P2 transition. A comparison is made with the results obtained in the case of Pr3+:ZBLAN, a laser fluoride glass with much higher 4f5d absorption levels. Our investigation also gives the opportunity, in the case of Pr3+:YAG, to provide more complete and more reliable absorption and emission data than reported in the past literature and to exploit these data to better address the question of laser operation at various emission wavelengths. It is thus demonstrated that laser operation should be possible with improved laser performance at 488 nm, 616 nm and 744 nm, as it was already achieved in the past, but also at 566 nm and 931 nm by using appropriate laser cavities and laser mirrors.