An extensive investigation of the fluorescence dynamics of the(2H11/2,4S3/2),4F9/2,4I9/2,4I11/2,and4I13/2states was carried out for 0.1&percent;, 1&percent;, 2.5&percent;, and 10&percent;Er3+doped inYVO4.The decay profiles of the luminescence of the4S3/2level ofEr3+(1.0&percent;) obey the Inokuti–Hirayama model for energy transfer for an electric dipole–electric dipole interaction in the absence of diffusion among the donors. From the analysis we were able to calculate the critical distance,R0,and it was found to be 5.7 Å: The dipole–dipole coupling parameter was estimated to be2.9×10−51 m6 s−1and compared well to other well known systems. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.