ION-IMPLANTATION, DIFFUSION, AND SOLUBILITY OF ND AND ER IN LINBO3

We have implanted Nd and Er ions into x- and z-cut LiNbO3 single crystals. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and channeling shows the recrystallization of the host during annealing and the rare earth diffusion. Nd and Er have different solubilities and different diffusion constants in LiNbO3. The solubility is strongly temperature dependent. The diffusion is substitutional, fastest parallel to c-axis of the LiNbO3 crystal and characterized by an activation energy of approximately 3.6 eV.