Research Progress of the Rare Earth Sesquioxide Crystal Materials
LIU Feng1,†, CHEN Kunfeng2,†, XUE Dongfeng1,*
1 Multiscale Crystal Materials Research Center, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China 2 State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Institute of Novel Semiconductors, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Abstract: Rare earth sesquioxide crystals are very suitable for ultrafast laser gain and magneto-optical medium. Its research began in the 1920s. Because of high thermal conductivity, wide fluorescence spectrum, low phonon energy and other advantages, they're still a research highlight in the field of advanced materials. Ranking first in the top 10 cutting-edge scientific issues issued by the China Association for Science and Technology in 2021, is ‘how to break through the preparation theory and technology of large size crystal materials’. It is clear that improving the preparation technology of large size crystal materials is the key to the commercial application of crystals. The crystalline intrinsic properties and crystal quality of materials are the result of the coupling of multiple degrees of freedom at the multi-scale level. Therefore, it is needed to study the multi-level and multi factor problems of rare earth such as ion bonding, melt structure evolution, crystal growth, etc., in the system at the multi-scale level, for the development of high-quality rare earth sesquioxide materials. In this paper, we focus on the influence of the electronegativity of rare earth ions on the coordination number of cations in the melt at the micro scale, the melt structure researched by the experiment and computational simulation, and the latest progress in crystal growth. The high melting point of rare earth sesquioxide (≥2 400 ℃) are the limits to the use of iridium crucibles and most growth technologies, and it is accordingly slow to develop the rare earth sesquioxide crystals at the inch grade. It is the key point for the preparation of large size and high-quality rare-earth sesquioxide crystals to adopt cosolvent method, heat exchange method and design low melting point components. In order to promote the commercial application of rare earth sesquioxide, revealing the coordination structure of rare earth ions, the evolution of melt structure, the formation mechanism of defects in the growth process, and developing the large-scale crystal growth technology are the key scientific challenges and technical bottlenecks that need to be solved urgently.
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