Absorption and laser excited fluorescence of Ho3+ : LaF3

The absorption and fluorescence spectra of Ho3+:LaF3 in the wavelength region from 4000 A to 7500 A have been reinvestigated incorporating polarization features, for the first time. The fluorescence spectrum, recorded using a spectrophotometer assembled in the laboratory, was excited with a He-Ne laser and an Ar+ laser. The present study enabled the interpretation of the data in terms of the Csub(2v) site symmetry of Ho3+ and most of the Stark components of the observed states have been classified under the irreducible representations of the Csub(2v) point group. (author)