Yttrium orthovanadate

There are two principal applications for doped yttrium orthovanadate:

• Doped with neodymium it forms Nd:YVO₄, an active laser medium used in diode-pumped solid-state lasers.
• Doped with europium it forms Eu:YVO₄, the dominant red phosphor used in cathode-ray tubes especially in color TVs.

Basic properties

• Crystal structure:
  • Zircon tetragonal (tetragonal bipyramidal)
  • Space group D_4h
  • Lattice parameters a = b = 7.119 Å, c = 6.290 Å
• Density: 4.24 g/cm³
• Melting point: 1810–1940 °C
• Mohs hardness: glass-like, ~5
• Knoop hardness: 480 kg/mm²
• Thermal expansion coefficient:
  • α_a = 4.43×10⁻⁶/K
  • α_c = 11.37×10⁻⁶/K
• Thermal conductivity coefficient:
  • parallel to c-axis: 5.23 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹
  • perpendicular to c-axis: 5.10 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹
• Refractive indices, birefringence ( Δn = n_e - n_o) and walk-off angle at 45° (ρ):
  • at 0.63 μm:
    • n_e = 2.2154
    • n_o = 1.9929
    • Δn = 0.2225
    • ρ = 6.04
  • at 1.30 μm:
    • n_e = 2.1554
    • n_o = 1.9500
    • Δn = 0.2054
    • ρ= 5.72
  • at 1.55 μm:
    • n_e = 2.1486
    • n_o = 1.9447
    • Δn = 0.2039
    • ρ = 5.69
  • Sellmeier equation (λ in μm):
    • n_e²=4.59905 + 0.110534/(λ² − 0.04813) − 0.012267612 λ²
    • n_o²=3.77834 + 0.069736/(λ² − 0.04724) − 0.0108133 λ²