Yttrium orthovanadate

Yttrium orthovanadate (YVO4) is a transparent crystal. Undoped YVO4 is also used to make efficient high-power polarizing prisms similar to Glan–Taylor prisms.

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 D4h
 * 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:
 * αa = 4.43×10−6/K
 * αc = 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 = ne - no) and walk-off angle at 45° (ρ):
 * at 0.63 μm:
 * ne = 2.2154
 * no = 1.9929
 * Δn = 0.2225
 * ρ = 6.04
 * at 1.30 μm:
 * ne = 2.1554
 * no = 1.9500
 * Δn = 0.2054
 * ρ= 5.72
 * at 1.55 μm:
 * ne = 2.1486
 * no = 1.9447
 * Δn = 0.2039
 * ρ = 5.69
 * Sellmeier equation (λ in μm):
 * ne2=4.59905 + 0.110534/(λ2 − 0.04813) − 0.012267612 λ2
 * no2=3.77834 + 0.069736/(λ2 − 0.04724) − 0.0108133 λ2