Optically Addressing Single Rare-Earth Ions in a Nanophotonic Cavity

2018/03/31 by Tian Zhong, Jonathan M. Kindem, John G. Bartholomew +9 · 182 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Ion #Laser #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Nanophotonics #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photon #Photonic and Optical Devices #Physics #Purcell effect #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Qubit #Single-photon source #Spontaneous emission #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.183603

published in Physical Review Letters 121(18), 183603 (American Physical Society)

openalex publication_date 2018/10/31 · arxiv created 2019/01/13 · arxiv updated 2019/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We demonstrate optical probing of spectrally resolved single Nd³⁺ rare-earth ions in yttrium orthovanadate. The ions are coupled to a photonic crystal resonator and show strong enhancement of the optical emission rate via the Purcell effect, resulting in near radiatively limited single photon emission. The measured high coupling cooperativity between a single photon and the ion allows for the observation of coherent optical Rabi oscillations. This could enable optically controlled spin qubits, quantum logic gates, and spin-photon interfaces for future quantum networks.

Citations

• Efficient optical pumping of Zeeman spin levels in
• Coherent Storage of Microwave Excitations in Rare-Earth Nuclear Spins
• A solid-state light–matter interface at the single-photon level
• Local-field correction to the spontaneous decay rate of atoms embedded in bodies of finite size
• Mapping multiple photonic qubits into and out of one solid-state atomic ensemble
• Nondestructive photon detection using a single rare-earth ion coupled to a photonic cavity
• Atomic Source of Single Photons in the Telecom Band

Cited by

• Investigation of Rare-Earth Ion-Photon Interaction and Strong Coupling in Optical Microcavities