Measurement of photon echoes in Er:Y_2SiO_5 at 15  µm with a diode laser and an amplifier

Abstract

We have measured the optical dephasing time of Er(3+) transitions near 1.5 microm in the two crystallographically inequivalent sites of Y(2)SiO(5), using an external-cavity diode laser amplified by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. Two-pulse photon echoes were observed at zero field and in magnetic fields up to 55kG, with dephasing times as long as 580 micros (corresponding to a linewidth of 550 Hz). Stimulated echoes were also measured and showed evidence of spectral diffusion during the 13-ms lifetime of the (4)I(13/2) level.

Strong-coupling cavity QED using rare-earth-metal-ion dopants in monolithic resonators: What you can do with a weak oscillator

“…In the case of cavity QED experiments the dominant cause of excess dephasing will most likely be interactions between spins in the host and the electron or nuclear spin of the dopant, as both the concentration of dopant and the amount of optical excitation in the sample will be small. Finding a good host for rare earth ion dopants that does not contain nuclear spins has proved difficult, even in the quietest of hosts such as Y 2 SiO 5 , the nuclear spins of the yttrium contribute significantly to the homogeneous linewidths [41,42,43].…”

Incorporating excitation-induced dephasing into the Maxwell–Bloch numerical modeling of photon echoes

“…Thus it would be straightforward to add the effects of ''ordinary'' spectral diffusion due to random magnetic spinflips by simply increasing this time-independent background level. Such a continuous low level of scrambling leads to the non-exponential decays that are often seen in ordinary spectral diffusion [38,39].…”

Experimental observation of spectral diffusion in an optically pumped crystal

“…For that purpose, Er 3þ : Y 2 SiO 5 received considerable attention. After the first photon echo experiment [5], material optimization and full characterization followed [6,7], leading to the narrowest homogeneous width ever measured in a rare-earth iondoped crystal (down to 70 Hz) [8].…”