Interstitial doping of Mn4+ ions: An effective method to optimize the optical properties of TeO2 single crystal

Abstract TeO 2 single crystal has drawn much attention in recent years due to its excellent acousto‐optic (AO) performance in the field of spectral imaging and optical processing. The optical properties of TeO 2 single crystal are critical for the fabrication of AO devices. To improve the optical properties of the TeO 2 single crystal, Mn 4+ ions were doped into the TeO 2 lattice. Herein, bulk TeO 2 single crystal and TeO 2 :0.02Mn 4+ single crystal have been successfully grown by a Bridgman method. Compared with the TeO 2 single crystal, a 30% transmittance increase was observed in the TeO 2 :0.02Mn 4+ single crystal. Furthermore, the TeO 2 :0.02Mn 4+ single crystal shows a smaller extinction coefficient (≤0.01) in the Vis–NIR region, indicating less optical loss. The bandgap energy of TeO 2 :0.02Mn 4+ was broadened from 3.360 to 3.635 eV. In addition, TeO 2 :0.02Mn 4+ single crystal exhibits a higher refractive index (about 2.244), which indicates that TeO 2 :0.02Mn 4+ single crystal is a potential medium for high‐efficiency AO devices.