Erbium metal

Erbium oxide

Erbium alloy

Erbium powder
 

Erbium is a silver-white metal; Melting point 1529°C, boiling point 2863°C, density 9.006g/cm3; Erbium is antiferromagnetic at low temperatures, strongly ferromagnetic near absolute zero, and a superconductor.

The erbium oxide is slowly oxidized by air and water at room temperature, and the erbium oxide is rose red.

Erbium can be used as a reactor control material. Erbium can also be used as activator of some fluorescent materials. The first ionization energy is 6.10 electron volts. The chemical and physical properties of holmium and dysprosium are almost identical.

Erbium is a silvery white metal, soft, insoluble in water and soluble in acid. Salts and oxides are pink to red. Erbium isotopes are: 162Er, 164Er, 166Er, 167Er, 168Er, 170Er.

Element name: Erbium

Element symbol: Er

erbium

erbium

English name: Erbium

Atomic weight of element: 167.3

Bulk modulus of elasticity: Gpa: 44.4

Enthalpy of atomization: kJ /mol @25ºC : 314

Heat capacity: J/(mol·K) : 28.12

Conductivity: 106/(cm·Ω) : 0.0117

Thermal conductivity: W/ (m·K) : 14.5

Melting heat: 19.90 (kJ/mol)

Heat of vaporization: (kilojoule/mole) : 261.0

Atomic volume (cubic cm/mole) : 18.4

Erbium laser head

Oxidation state: Main Er+3

Other

Amount of elements in the universe: (ppm) : 0.002

Element content in the Sun: (ppm) : 0.001

Element content in seawater: (ppm) : Atlantic Surface 0.00000059

0.00000086 deep in the Atlantic Ocean

Content in crust: (ppm) : 3.8

Crystal structure: the cell is hexagonal.

Cell parameters:

a = 355.88pm; b = 355.88pm; c = 558.74pm; α = 90°; β = 90°; Gamma is equal to 120 degrees

Vickers Hardness: 589MPa

The propagation rate of sound in it: (m/S) 2830

Ionization energy (kJ /mol)

M -- M+ 588.7; M+ -- M2+ 1151; M2+ -- M3+ 2194; M3+ -- M4+ 4115

Element type: Metal

Element symbol: Er

English name: Erbium

Chinese name: Erbium

Relative atomic mass: 167.2

Common valence: +3

Electronegativity: 1.24

Peripheral electron configuration: 4f12 6s2

Electron configuration: 2,8,18,30,8,2

Electron shell: K-L-M-N-O-P

Isotopes and Radiation: Er-162, Er-164, *Er-166, Er-167, Er-168, Er-169[9.4d], Er-170, Er-171[7.5h], Er-172[2.1d]

Electron affinity: 0 KJ·mol-1

First ionization energy: 589 KJ·mol-1

Second ionization energy: 1151 KJ·mol-1

Third ionization energy: 0 KJ·mol-1

Elemental density: 8.795 g/cm3

Elemental melting point: 1522.0 ºC

Elemental boiling point: 2510.0 ºC

Atomic radius: 2.45 angstroms

Ionic radius: 1.00 (+3) angstroms

Covalent radius: 1.57 angstroms

Application field editor broadcast

Er2O3 is a rose red oxide used to make pottery glazes. Erbium oxide is used in ceramics to produce a pink glaze. Erbium also has some applications in the nuclear industry and as an alloy for other metals. The addition of erbium to vanadium, for example, increases its ductility.

The most prominent use of Erbium is in the manufacture of Erbium Dopant Fiber Amplifier, or EDFA. First developed by the University of Southampton in 1985, the Erbium-doped Fiber amplifier (EDFA) is one of the greatest inventions in fiber optic communication and can even be said to be the "gas station" of today's long-distance information superhighway. Erbium-doped fiber is a quartz fiber with a small amount of the rare earth element Er3+, which is the core of the amplifier. The principle of Er3+ amplifying optical signal is that when ER3 + is excited by the wavelength of 980nm or 1480nm and absorbs the energy of the pump light, it transitions from the ground state to the higher energy state of the pump. Since the lifetime of the particles in the pumped state is very short, they quickly relax from the pumped state to metastable state in a non-radiative way, and the particles gradually accumulate in the energy zone with a long lifetime. When 1550nm signal light passes through, the metastable Er3+ ion transitions to the ground state in the form of stimulated radiation, which also emits exactly 1550nm wavelength light. The light emitted during the jump from the high energy state to the ground state supplements the signal light lost in attenuation, thus realizing that the signal light is continuously amplified with attenuation in the fiber propagation process.

By mixing erbium into a common quartz fiber and combining it with a semiconductor laser with two wavelengths of 980nm or 1480nm, the amplifier can be used to directly amplify optical signals at 1550nm. Quartz fiber can transmit a variety of different wavelengths of light, but the light decay rate is not the same, 1550nm band of light in the quartz fiber transmission time attenuation rate is the lowest (only 0.15 dB/km), the attenuation rate is almost the lower limit. Therefore, optical fiber communication with 1550nm wavelength light as the signal light, light loss is minimal. Therefore, the fiber doped with tens to hundreds of ppm of erbium, can play a role in compensating the optical loss in the communication system. Erbium-doped fiber amplifier is like an optical "pump station", transmitting optical signals from station to station without any attenuation, thus smoothly opening the technical channel of modern long-distance large-capacity high-speed fiber communication.

Another hotspot for erbium is lasers, especially as a medical laser material. The Erbium laser is a solid-state pulsed laser with a wavelength of 2,940 nm that is strongly absorbed by water molecules in human tissues to achieve greater results with less energy and can cut, grind and excise soft tissue with great precision. Erbium-yag lasers are also used for cataract extraction. Because the main component of cataract lens is water, erbium laser has low energy and is easily absorbed by water, which will be a promising surgical method for cataract extraction. Erbium laser therapy instrument is opening up more and more extensive application field for laser surgery.

Erbium can also be used as active ion in rare earth upconversion laser materials. Erbium laser up-conversion materials can be divided into two types: single crystal (fluoride, oxygen salt) and glass (fiber), such as Erbium-doped yttrium aluminate (YAP:Er3+) crystal and Er3+ doped ZBLAN fluoride (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) glass fiber, etc., which have been put into practice. BaYF5:Yb3+, Er3+ can convert infrared light into visible light. This multi-photon up-conversion luminescent material has been successfully used in night vision apparatus. [2]

In November 2022, German scientists for the first time integrated an erbium atom, which has special optical properties, into a silicon crystal that can be connected by light commonly used in communications, making it an ideal building block for future quantum networks.