2020/06/17 by Senthil Kumar Kuppusamy, Kumar, Kuppusamy Senthil, Diana Serrano +13
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Lanthanide and Transition Metal Complexes #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Molecular spectroscopy and chirality #Optics (physics.optics) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2006.09831
openalex publication_date 2020/06/17 · openalex created_date 2022/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The success of the emerging field of solid-state optical quantum information processing (QIP) critically depends on the access to resonant optical materials. Rare-earth ions (REIs) are suitable candidates for QIP protocols due to their extraordinary photo-physical and magnetic quantum properties such as long optical and spin coherence lifetimes (T2). However, molecules incorporating REIs, despite having advantageous properties such as atomically exact quantum tunability, inherent scalability, and large portability, have not yet been studied for QIP applications. As a first testimony of the usefulness of REI molecules for optical QIP applications, we demonstrate in this study that narrow spectral holes can be burned in the inhomogeneously broadened 5D0→7F0 optical transition of a binuclear Eu(III) complex, rendering a homogeneous linewidth (Γh) = 22 ± 1 MHz, which translates as T2 = 14.5 ± 0.7 ns at 1.4 K. Moreover, long-lived spectral holes are observed, demonstrating efficient polarization of Eu(III) ground state nuclear spins, a fundamental requirement for all-optical spin initialization and addressing. These results elucidate the usefulness of REI-based molecular complexes as versatile coherent light-spin interfaces for applications in quantum communications and processing.