RARE EARTHS AS A PROBEOF ENVIRONMENT ANDELECTRON-PHONONINTERACTION IN OPTICALMATERIALS -- RARE EARTHS AS A PROBEOF ENVIRONMENT ANDELECTRON-PHONONINTERACTION IN OPTICALMATERIALS -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- Chapter IINTRODUCTION -- Chapter IIELECTRONIC ENERGY LEVEL SCHEME OFRARE EARTHS -- A. DETAILS ON THE SAMPLES, SAMPLE PREPARATION, ANDFTMEASUREMENTS -- B. ABSORPTION SPECTRA ANALYSIS, LINE ATTRIBUTION ONTHE BASIS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA -- 1. An Example of Line Attribution: Er3+ in CrystallineEnvironments -- 2. Line Attribution for More Complex Spectra (Dy3+, Ho3+, andTm3+) -- 3. Line Attribution for End Members of the RE Series: TheExample of Ce3+ -- 4. Sublevel Separation within the Ground Manifold -- 5. Linear Dichroism Measurements and Wavefunction Symmetry -- C. CRYSTAL FIELD ANALYSIS, ENERGY LEVEL SCHEME,AND SUPERPOSITION MODEL -- Chapter IIIRE3+ AS A PROBE OF THE ENVIRONMENT -- A. LINE WIDTH AS A PROBE OF THE RE3+ ENVIRONMENT -- 1. Long Range Order Perturbed by Increasing RE3+ Concentration -- 2. Short Range Order Induced by Fluorine in Er3+ Doped SilicaGlasses -- 3. Local Order Monitored by Er3+ in Nanostructured SiO2 /SnO2Glassceramics -- B. RE3+ CLUSTERS -- C. ER-O INTERACTION -- D. HYPERFINE STRUCTURE OF HO3+ LINES -- Chapter IVELECTRON-PHONON (E-P) INTERACTION -- A. LINE POSITION AND WIDTH AS A FUNCTION OF THETEMPERATURE -- B.MODELS, FITTING, AND ELECTRON-PHONONINTERACTION -- C. VIBRONIC TRANSITIONS -- D. VIBRONIC SPECTRA ANALYSIS -- Chapter VCONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- INDEX.