Reducing decoherence in optical and spin transitions in rare-earth-metal-ion–doped materials

In many important situations, the dominant dephasing mechanism in cryogenic rare-earth-metal-ion-doped systems is due to magnetic field fluctuations from spins in the host crystal. Operating at a magnetic field where a transition has a zero first-order Zeeman (ZEFOZ) shift can greatly reduce this de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2012-03, Vol.85 (3), Article 032339
Main Authors: McAuslan, D. L., Bartholomew, J. G., Sellars, M. J., Longdell, J. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystals
Excitation spectra
Fluctuation
Holes
Magnetic fields
Optical transition
Spin transition
Wavelengths
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Summary:In many important situations, the dominant dephasing mechanism in cryogenic rare-earth-metal-ion-doped systems is due to magnetic field fluctuations from spins in the host crystal. Operating at a magnetic field where a transition has a zero first-order Zeeman (ZEFOZ) shift can greatly reduce this dephasing. Here we identify the location of transitions with a zero first-order Zeeman shift for optical transitions in Pr super(3):YAG and for spin transitions in Er super(3):Y sub(2)SiO sub(5). The long coherence times that ZEFOZ can enable would make Pr super(3):YAG a strong candidate for achieving the strong-coupling regime of cavity QED, and would be an important step forward in creating long-lived telecommunications wavelength quantum memories in Er super(3):Y sub(2)SiO sub(5). This work relies mostly on published spin-Hamiltonian parameters, but Raman heterodyne spectroscopy was performed on Pr super(3):YAG to measure the parameters for the excited state.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.85.032339