Interlaced spin grating for optical wave filtering

Abstract

Interlaced Spin Grating is a scheme for the preparation of spectro-spatial periodic absorption gratings in a inhomogeneously broadened absorption profile. It relies on the optical pumping of atoms in a nearby long-lived ground state sublevel. The scheme takes advantage of the sublevel proximity to build large contrast gratings with unlimited bandwidth and preserved average optical depth. It is particularly suited to Tm-doped crystals in the context of classical and quantum signal processing. In this paper, we study the optical pumping dynamics at play in an Interlaced Spin Grating and describe the corresponding absorption profile shape in an optically thick atomic ensemble. We show that, in Tm:YAG, the diffraction efficiency of such a grating can reach 18.3% in the small angle, and 11.6% in the large angle configuration when the excitation is made of simple pulse pairs, considerably outperforming conventional gratings.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures in Physical Review A, 201

Efficient optical pumping using hyperfine levels in 145Nd3+:Y2SiO5 and its application to optical storage

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Rare-earth doped transparent ceramics for spectral filtering and quantum information processing

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Rate equation reformulation including coherent excitation: application to periodic protocols based on spectral hole-burning

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