erbium

Also known as Er, element 68, 68Er

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 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.

OverviewAI-generated

Erbium is a chemical element with the symbol Er and atomic number 68. Its standard atomic weight is 167.26, and it has an electronegativity of 1. The element was discovered in 1879. In chemical notation, it is represented by the canonical SMILES string "[Er]" and the Unicode character "鉺".

The ionic radius of erbium is 1. It has zero hydrogen bond donors and acceptors, with a topological polar surface area of 0 and a charge of 0. The PubChem identifier for erbium is 23980, and its IUPAC name is erbium. The InChIKey associated with the element is UYAHIZSMUZPPFV-UHFFFAOYSA-N.

References to erbium appear in 5931 PubMed records. Additionally, the subject is referenced by 796 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubChem, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Chemical data

Formula: Er
Molecular weight: 167.26 g/mol
IUPAC name: erbium
SMILES: [Er]
InChIKey: UYAHIZSMUZPPFV-UHFFFAOYSA-N
Polar surface area: 0 Å²
H-bond donors: 0
H-bond acceptors: 0
Formal charge: 0

via PubChem

Research

5,931 papers

Erbium laser-assisted ceramic debonding: a scoping review.Journal of prosthodontics : official journal of the American College of Prosthodontists · 2022Deeb JG, Grzech-Leśniak K, Brody ER et al.DOI: 10.1111/jopr.13613
Erbium lasers in non-surgical periodontal therapy: an umbrella review and evidence gap map analysis.Lasers in medical science · 2022Lavu V, Kumar D, Krishnakumar D et al.DOI: 10.1007/s10103-022-03504-4
Erbium lasers in dentistry.ReviewDental clinics of North America · 2004van As GDOI: 10.1016/j.cden.2004.06.001
Erbium:YAG laser skin resurfacing.ReviewFacial plastic surgery clinics of North America · 2004Caniglia RJDOI: 10.1016/j.fsc.2004.03.005
Do erbium lasers promote changes in the tooth enamel during debonding of ceramic laminate veneers? A systematic review.Lasers in medical science · 2023Alves LVGL, da Silva MBF, Borsatto MC et al.DOI: 10.1007/s10103-023-03882-3
Effect of erbium family laser etching on shear bond strength of enamel surfaces: A meta-analysis-PRISMA.Medicine · 2022Jiang T, Gong Q, Liu Y et al.DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000030990
Erbium Laser Technology vs Traditional Drilling for Caries Removal: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.The journal of evidence-based dental practice · 2017Tao S, Li L, Yuan H et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.jebdp.2017.05.004
Erbium(III) complexes with fluoroquinolones: Structure and biological properties.Journal of inorganic biochemistry · 2024Arnaouti E, Georgiadou C, Hatizdimitriou AG et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2024.112525

via PubMed

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

18 sections

Contents

Characteristics
Physical properties
Chemical properties
Isotopes
Compounds
Oxides
Halides
Organoerbium compounds
History
Occurrence
Production
Applications
Lasers and optics
Other applications
Biological role and precautions
References
Further reading
External links

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 and then radiate light at in stimulated emission. This process results in an unusually mechanically simple laser optical amplifier for signals transmitted by fiber optics. The wavelength is especially important for optical communications because standard single mode optical fibers have minimal loss at this particular wavelength.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “erbium” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.