Erbium - through rose-tinted glasses

Erbium is named after a chemically famous Swedish village, and adds a rose-tinted glow to the periodic table, in ep 26 of Elemental with Allan Blackman from AUT.

The chemical element erbium is one of eight lanthanoid elements discovered in a single mine in the small Swedish village of Ytterby.

Four of those elements took their name from various combinations of letters of the name Ytterby: erbium, ytterbium, yttrium and terbium.

It is used in welder's glasses to absorb the intense infrared light given off during welding, and erbium oxide provides the colour pink in coloured glass and spectacles.

Erbium is important in optical fibres, acting to amplify light as it passes along the cable.

Professor Allan Blackman from AUT says erbium is also used in lasers for skin resurfacing.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details