Erbium is a chemical element; it has symbol Er and atomic number 68. A silvery-white[7] solid metal when artificially isolated, natural erbium is always found in chemical combination with other elements. It is a lanthanide, a rare-earth element, originally found in the gadolinite mine in Ytterby, Sweden, which is the source of the element's name.
Erbium's principal uses involve its pink-colored Er3+ ions, which have optical fluorescent properties particularly useful in certain laser applications. Erbium-doped glasses or crystals can be used as optical amplification media, where Er3+ ions are optically pumped at around 980 or 1480 nm and then radiate light at 1530 nm in stimulated emission. This process results in an unusually mechanically simple laser optical amplifier for signals transmitted by fiber optics. The 1550 nm wavelength is especially important for optical communications because standard single mode optical fibers have minimal loss at this particular wavelength.
In addition to optical fiber amplifier-lasers, a large variety of medical applications (e.g. dermatology, dentistry) rely on the erbium ion's 2940 nm emission (see Er:YAG laser) when lit at another wavelength, which is highly absorbed in water in tissues, making its effect very superficial. Such shallow tissue deposition of laser energy is helpful in laser surgery, and for the efficient production of steam which produces enamel ablation by common types of dental laser.
^"Standard Atomic Weights: Erbium". CIAAW. 1999.
^Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (2022-05-04). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.
^ abArblaster, John W. (2018). Selected Values of the Crystallographic Properties of Elements. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM International. ISBN 978-1-62708-155-9.
^Yttrium and all lanthanides except Ce and Pm have been observed in the oxidation state 0 in bis(1,3,5-tri-t-butylbenzene) complexes, see Cloke, F. Geoffrey N. (1993). "Zero Oxidation State Compounds of Scandium, Yttrium, and the Lanthanides". Chem. Soc. Rev. 22: 17–24. doi:10.1039/CS9932200017. and Arnold, Polly L.; Petrukhina, Marina A.; Bochenkov, Vladimir E.; Shabatina, Tatyana I.; Zagorskii, Vyacheslav V.; Cloke (2003-12-15). "Arene complexation of Sm, Eu, Tm and Yb atoms: a variable temperature spectroscopic investigation". Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. 688 (1–2): 49–55. doi:10.1016/j.jorganchem.2003.08.028.
^Weast, Robert (1984). CRC, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Boca Raton, Florida: Chemical Rubber Company Publishing. pp. E110. ISBN 0-8493-0464-4.
^Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
^"Erbium (Er)". American Elements: The Materials Science Company. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
Erbium is a chemical element; it has symbol Er and atomic number 68. A silvery-white solid metal when artificially isolated, natural erbium is always...
Naturally occurring erbium (68Er) is composed of 6 stable isotopes, with 166Er being the most abundant (33.503% natural abundance). 39 radioisotopes have...
momentum (specified by the quantum number J). Thus, for example, the trivalent erbium ion (Er3+) has a ground state with J = 15/2, and in the presence of an electric...
Erbium boride may refer to: Erbium tetraboride, ErB4 Erbium hexaboride, ErB6 This set index article lists chemical compounds articles associated with...
Erbium nitride is a binary inorganic compound of erbium and nitrogen with the chemical formula ErN. The compound forms black powder. Chemically, ErN is...
thulium and erbium. All three men are given credit for the element's discovery. In 1843, Carl Gustaf Mosander discovered terbium and erbium as components...
Erbium compounds are compounds containing the element erbium (Er). These compounds are usually dominated by erbium in the +3 oxidation state, although...
photo-thermally (radiantly). Er:YAG laser Carbon dioxide laser Er,Cr:YSGG laser Erbium lasers are both hard and soft tissue capable. They can be used for a host...
Erbium iodate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Er(IO3)3. Erbium iodate can be obtained by reacting erbium periodate and periodic acid...
600 nm CO2 laser. Complete resurfacing was first done with a CO2 laser. Both Erbium and CO2 are used to treat deep rhytides, sun damage and age spots. Through...
Erbium hexaboride (ErB6) is a rare-earth hexaboride compound containing the element erbium, which has a calcium hexaboride crystal structure. It is one...
beta emission. The primary decay products before 169Tm are element 68 (erbium) isotopes, and the primary products after are element 70 (ytterbium) isotopes...
appears in period 6, between the lanthanides dysprosium to its left and erbium to its right, and above the actinide einsteinium. With a boiling point of...
Erbium phosphide is a binary inorganic compound of erbium and phosphorus with the chemical formula ErP. Erbium phosphide can be formed by the reaction...
Erbium tetraboride is a boride of the lanthanide metal erbium. It is hard and has a high melting point. Industrial applications of erbium boride include...
Erbium acetylacetonate is a coordination compound with the formula Er(C5H7O2)3. This anhydrous acetylacetonate complex is often discussed but unlikely...
University of Southampton and Emmanuel Desurvire at Bell Labs, developed the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which reduced the cost of long-distance fiber systems...