erbium

American  

[ur-bee-uhm] / ˈɜr bi əm /

noun

Chemistry.

1. a rare-earth metallic element, having pink salts. Er; 167.26; 68.

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erbium British  

/ ˈɜːbɪəm /

noun

1. a soft malleable silvery-white element of the lanthanide series of metals: used in special alloys, room-temperature lasers, and as a pigment. Symbol: Er; atomic no: 68; atomic wt: 167.26; valency: 3; relative density: 9.006; melting pt: 1529°C; boiling pt: 2868°C

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erbium Scientific  

/ ûr′bē-əm /

1. A soft, silvery, metallic element of the lanthanide series. It is used as a neutron absorber in nuclear technology and in light amplification for fiber-optic telecommunications. Atomic number 68; atomic weight 167.26; melting point 1,497°C; boiling point 2,900°C; specific gravity 9.051; valence 3.

2. See Periodic Table

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Etymology

Origin of erbium

1835–45; < New Latin, named after Ytterby, Sweden, where first found; see -ium

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

erbium

In the new study, Zhong's team succeeded in raising the coherence time of individual erbium atoms from 0.1 milliseconds to more than 10 milliseconds.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2025

The region holds deposits of many of the very elements China has placed under export controls: yttrium, scandium, erbium, europium, ytterbium, samarium, and lutetium.

From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2025

Researchers in Australia and China have created such devices with erbium crystals, storing quantum states for several hours.

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 19, 2024

Han and Xue built their nanoparticles using two rare earth metals called erbium and ytterbium, along with a protein called ConA.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 28, 2019

Other elements are less familiar—hafnium, erbium, dyprosium and praseodymium, say, which we do not much bump into in everyday life.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan