. The donor fluorescence decay was not fit by the law t 0.5 and the quenching efficiency was characterized by the square-law dependence on the concentration and a very poor dependency on the temperature. The analysis of some models allows us to assume, that in this case the cooperative quenching of the 1 D 2 states of both type Pr 3+ optical centers can take place.

No abstract

No abstract

The quasi-symmetry of the inequivalent cation sites in the crystals Gd2SiO5, Y2SiO5, and Lu2SiO5 is established on the basis of an analysis of the features of the low-temperature optical spectra of the impurity ion Pr3+. One type of cation site of the crystals Y2SiO5 and Lu2SiO5 manifests the quasi-symmetry of a distorted octahedron, and the other type, that of a distorted tetrahedron. The parameters characterizing the energy spectrum of the free Pr3+ ion in the crystalline field of the cation sites are determined.

It is shown on the basis of studies of the optical spectra and luminescence decay of nonequivalent Pr3+ optical centers in the Y2SiO5 crystal that the occupation of the nonequivalent cation sites of the crystal lattice by the activator ions is irregular. For excitation in the region of the optical transitions H43→1D2in the temperature interval 6–80 K there is no transfer of electronic excitation energy between Pr3+ ions localized in different cation sites. The luminescence decay law of the Pr3+ optical centers is determined by the concentration of activator ions and has a complicated non-single-exponential character; the quenching of the luminescence of the Pr3+ ions is due to the formation of dimers of these ions. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.