Erbium

Notable characteristics

A optical amplifiers. The 1550nm wavelength is especially important for optical communications because standard single mode optical fibers have minimal loss at this particular wavelength. A large variety of medical applications can be found (i.e. dermatology, dentistry) by utilizing the 2940nm emission (see Er:YAG_laser) which is highly absorped in water (about 12000 1/cm).

Applications

Erbium's everyday uses are varied. It is commonly used as a photographic filter, and because of its resilience it is useful as a metallurgical additive. Other uses:

• Used in nuclear technology as a neutron absorber (moderator).
• Used as a fiber-optic laser amplifiers.
• When added to alloy, erbium lowers hardness and improves workability.
• Erbium oxide has a pink color, and is sometimes used as a colorant for glass and porcelain. The glass is then often used in sunglasses and cheap jewelry.
• Erbium is also used to provide the pink color in cubic zirconia, also used in inexpensive jewelry. The pink color is especially intense and beautiful under white fluorescent lighting.
• Erbium-doped optical silica-glass fibers are the active element in erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers.

History

Erbium (for Ytterby, a town in Sweden) was potassium vapor.

Occurrence

Like other rare earths, this element is never found as a free element in nature but is found bound in euxenite, and most recently, the ion adsorption clays of southern China. In the high-yttrium versions of these ore concentrates, yttrium is about two-thirds of the total by weight, and erbia is about 4-5%. This is enough erbium to impart a distinct pink color to the solution when the concentrate is dissolved in acid. This color behavior is highly similar to what Mosander and the other early workers in the lanthanides would have seen, in their extracts from Ytterby gadolinite.

Isotopes

Main article: isotopes of erbium

Naturally occurring erbium is composed of 6 stable radioactive isotopes have half-lifes that are less than 3.5 hours, and the majority of these have half lifes that are less than 4 minutes. This element also has 13 meta states, with the most stable being Er-167m (t_½ 2.269 seconds).

The isotopes of erbium range in thulium) isotopes.

Precautions

As with the other lanthanides, erbium compounds are of low to moderate toxicity, although their toxicity has not been investigated in detail. Metallic erbium in dust form presents a fire and explosion hazard.

See also

• Erbium compounds
• Terbium
• Ytterbium
• Yttrium

References

• Los Alamos National Laboratory – Erbium
• Guide to the Elements – Revised Edition, Albert Stwertka, (Oxford University Press; 1998) ISBN 0-19-508083-1
• It's Elemental – Erbium

Chemical Elements: Erbium http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/er.html