Dephasing mechanisms of optical transitions in rare-earth-doped transparent ceramics
Abstract
We identify and analyze dephasing mechanisms that broaden the optical transitions of rare-earth ions in randomly oriented transparent ceramics. The study examines the narrow F_0^7 ↔ D_0^5 transition of Eu^(3+) dopants in a series of Y_2O_3 ceramic samples prepared under varying conditions. We characterize the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the homogeneous linewidth, as well as long-term spectral diffusion on time scales up to 1 s. The results highlight significant differences between samples with differing thermal treatments and Zr^(4+) additive concentrations. In particular, several distinct magnetic interactions from defect centers are observed, which are clearly distinguished from the broadening due to interactions with two-level systems and phonons. By minimizing the broadening due to the different defect centers, linewidths of the order of 4 kHz are achieved for all samples. The linewidths are limited by temperature-dependent interactions and by an interaction that is yet to be identified. Although the homogeneous linewidth can be narrowed further in these ceramic samples, the broadening is now comparable to the linewidths achieved in rare-earth-ion–doped single crystals. Thus, this work emphasizes the usefulness of studying ceramics to gain insights into dephasing mechanisms relevant to single crystals and suggests that ceramics may be an interesting alternative for applications in classical and quantum information processing.
Additional Information
© 2016 American Physical Society. (Received 15 August 2016; revised manuscript received 7 October 2016; published 1 November 2016) N.K. would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for a postdoctoral research fellowship (Project No. KU 3427/1-1). Financial support by the ANR projects RAMACO (No. 12-BS08-0015-01) and DISCRYS (No. 14-CE26-0037-01), Idex ANR-10-IDEX- 0001-02 PSL ☆, and the Nano'K project RECTUS are gratefully acknowledged. Furthermore, we would like to thank M. O. Ramírez and L. E. Bausá for help with the microscopic measurements, Charles W. Thiel for fruitful discussions, and Jean-François Egrand for constructing a sample holder for the measurements in the high magnetic field.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevB.94.184301.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 72318
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20161128-122900629
- KU 3427/1-1
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- 12-BS08-0015-01
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR)
- 14-CE26-0037-01
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR)
- ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR)
- Nano'K
- Conseil Régional Ile-de-France
- Created
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2016-11-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field