Erbium

Erbium (Er) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Erbium’s research intensity stands at about 93% of its all-time peak, a level reached during this window.

Research intensity ran from about 90% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 93% in 2026 — a rise to a mid-window peak followed by a fall back, and the all-time peak (2023) falls inside this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, erbium has a larger-than-average research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 2,631 in 2016 to about 4,853 in 2025 (1.84x). That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research even as its own count rose.

The core of erbium’s recent literature is defined by its role in optical fiber technology. The largest material community, Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers and Ring Lasers, accounts for about 25% of the element's recent research. In this field, erbium serves as the active gain medium in fiber amplifiers and ring lasers, with a focus on multi-wavelength operation and tellurite glass host materials. Although erbium is a minor presence in the broader community of optical fiber lasers and sensors—appearing in about 9% of those papers—it is central to this specific area. The community’s share has remained steady over the last decade. A key work in this area is Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers (2026), cited over 810 times.

A second major area, Erbium-Doped Fiber and Waveguide Amplifiers, holds about 16% of recent research. These papers focus on modal gain, few-mode amplification, and division multiplexing in erbium-doped fiber and waveguide systems. Here, erbium is a minor presence in the larger field of integrated photonics, appearing in about 3% of those papers. The share of this community has also held steady. Notable work includes A photonic integrated circuit–based erbium-doped amplifier (2022), cited over 390 times, and An ultra-broadband photonic-chip-based parametric amplifier (2025), cited about 39 times.

The third named community, Erbium-Doped Fiber Lasers and Pulse Generation, represents about 15% of recent research. This group focuses on mode-locked and Q-switched configurations for generating ultrashort pulses. Erbium is a minor presence in the broader community of two-dimensional materials for photonics, appearing in about 2% of those papers. The share of this community has remained steady. Representative papers include Saturable absorption properties and ultrafast photonics applications of HfS 3 (2024), cited about 76 times, and Switchable Single- to Multiwavelength Conventional Soliton and Bound-State Soliton Generated from a NbTe 2 Saturable Absorber-Based Passive Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser (2024), cited about 74 times.

Overall, the composition of erbium research has remained remarkably stable, with the three fiber-optic communities maintaining their relative shares. The remainder of the literature, which includes diverse applications in sensing and catalysis, has seen a slight rise in share, growing from 39% to about 45% of the element's recent research.

For a deeper look at the current state of erbium research, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.