Abstract
The decay and excitation processes of internal transitions of Yb3+(4f13) incorporated in InP were investigated by means of time‐resolved photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. From the temperature dependence of the excited state lifetime we find several decay mechanisms, including a bound‐exciton‐like Auger process, energy transfer, and thermal depopulation. Excitation spectroscopy reveals that free carriers are needed during the excitation process of Yb centers.