Excited state dynamics and energy transfer processes in $YVO4:Er3+$ crystals

An extensive investigation of the fluorescence dynamics of the $(2H11/2,4S3/2),$ ⁴F_9/2, ⁴I_9/2, ⁴I_11/2, and ⁴I_13/2 states was carried out for 0.1%, 1%, 2.5%, and 10% $Er3+$ doped in $YVO4.$ The decay profiles of the luminescence of the ⁴S_3/2 level of $Er3+$ (1.0%) obey the Inokuti–Hirayama model for energy transfer for an electric dipole–electric dipole interaction in the absence of diffusion among the donors. From the analysis we were able to calculate the critical distance, $R0,$ and it was found to be 5.7 Å: The dipole–dipole coupling parameter was estimated to be $2.9×10−51 m6 s−1$ and compared well to other well known systems.