Yttrium orthovanadate

Yttrium orthovanadate (YVO4) is a transparent crystal. It is commonly doped with neodymium to form Nd:YVO4, an active laser medium used in diode-pumped solid-state lasers. Undoped YVO4 is also used to make efficient high-power polarizing prisms similar to Glan-Taylor prisms.

Basic properties

 * Crystal structure:
 * Zircon tetragonal (tetragonal bipyramidal)
 * space group D4h
 * a = b = 7.12, c = 6.29


 * Density: 4.22 g/cm3


 * Mohs hardness: glass-like, ~5


 * Thermal expansion coefficient:
 * &alpha;a = 4.43×10-6/K
 * &alpha;c = 11.37×10-6/K


 * Thermal conductivity coefficient:
 * parallel to c-axis: 5.23 W&middot;m-1&middot;K-1
 * perpendicular to c-axis: 5.10 W&middot;m-1&middot;K-1


 * Refractive indices, birefringence ( &Delta;n = ne - no) and walk-off angle at 45° (ρ):
 * at 0.63 µm:
 * ne = 2.2154
 * no = 1.9929
 * &Delta;n = 0.2225
 * &rho; = 6.04
 * at 1.30 µm:
 * ne = 2.1554
 * no = 1.9500
 * &Delta;n = 0.2054
 * &rho;= 5.72
 * at 1.55 µm:
 * ne = 2.1486
 * no = 1.9447
 * &Delta;n = 0.2039
 * &rho; = 5.69
 * Sellmeier equation (&lambda; in µm):
 * ne2=4.59905 + 0.110534/(&lambda;2 − 0.04813) − 0.012267612 &lambda;2
 * no2=3.77834 + 0.069736/(&lambda;2 − 0.04724) − 0.0108133 &lambda;2