Lutetium Oxide Lu2O3 Micron Powder Purity 99.99%

Product Description

Lutetium oxide (Lu2O3), also known as lutecia, has a cubic crystal structure and available in white powder form. This rare earth metal oxide exhibits favorable physical properties, such as a high melting point (around 2400°C), phase stability, mechanical strength, hardness, thermal conductivity, and low thermal expansion. The compound is also known to have a wide bandgap of 5.2–5.5 eV and a high-κ dielectric constant of about κ = 11–13. The high density of Lu2O3 is utilized in scintillators and in various activators due to its wide bandgap. Due to its excellent physical properties lutetium oxide is considered to be an excellent phosphor host material. Rare earth compounds such as Pr, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm are frequently used as dopants in lutetium oxide structure. Such compounds provide important phosphors and high-power lasers. Furthermore, Lu2O3 can be used as additives in glass and ceramics, as a catalyst for hydrogenation, polymerization, cracking, and alkylation reactions.

Applications

Lu2O3 (Lutetium (III) Oxide or Lutetium Sesquioxide) is used in ceramics, glass, scintillators, and solid stated lasers. Lu2O3 is commonly used as an host material in making laser materials.

A couple of examples where high purity Lu2O3 was used in research leading to outstanding research results are:

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine published an article where they made and used Eu:Lu2O3 to create a very bright thin film scintillator for single cell radionuclide images. They use this technique to view the metabolic properties of similar cells in real time. One of the starting materials to make this material was high purity Lu2O3.

In another example where high purity Lu2O3 was employed, researchers at Clemson University grew single crystals of Lutetia via hydrothermal crystal growth techniques. Some of the materials were doped with laser active ions and they were then studied using spectroscopic techniques. The thermal conductivity of the crystals was also investigated.