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
• * Space group D_4h
• * 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:
• * α_a = 4.43×10⁻⁶/K
• * α_c = 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 and walk-off angle at 45° :
• *at 0.63 µm:
• **n_e = 2.2154
• **n_o = 1.9929
• **Δn = 0.2225
• **ρ = 6.04
• *at 1.30 µm:
• **n_e = 2.1554
• **n_o = 1.9500
• **Δn = 0.2054
• **ρ= 5.72
• *at 1.55 µm:
• **n_e = 2.1486
• **n_o = 1.9447
• **Δn = 0.2039
• **ρ = 5.69
• *Sellmeier equation :
• **n_e²=4.59905 + 0.110534/ − 0.012267612 λ²
• **n_o²=3.77834 + 0.069736/ − 0.0108133 λ²