2008/08/26 by B. Lauritzen, Björn Lauritzen, S. R. Hastings-Simon +7 · 59 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Chemistry #Doping #Erbium #Ground state #Laser #Magnetic field #Materials science #Optical pumping #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics #Physics #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Population #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Spectral hole burning #Spin (aerodynamics) #Zeeman effect #cond-mat.other #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.78.043402
published in Physical Review A 78(4) (American Physical Society) · 9 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A
arxiv created 2008/08/26 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Erbium-doped solids are potential candidates for the realization of a quantum memory for photons at telecommunication wavelengths. The implementation of quantum memory proposals in rare-earth-ion-doped solids require spectral tailoring of the inhomogeneous absorption profile by efficient population transfer between ground-state levels (spin polarization) using optical pumping. In this paper we investigate the limiting factors of efficient optical pumping between ground-state Zeeman levels in an erbium-doped Y2SiO5 crystal. We introduce two methods to overcome these limiting factors: stimulated emission using a second laser and spin mixing using radio frequency excitation. Both methods significantly improve the degree of spin polarization. Population transfer between two Zeeman levels with less than 10% of the total population in the initial ground state is achieved, corresponding to a spin polarization greater than 90%. In addition, we demonstrate spectral tailoring by isolating a narrow absorption peak within a large transparency window.