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arXiv:1701.08505 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Optical cryocooling of diamond

M. Kern, Jan Jeske, Desmond W. M. Lau, Andrew D. Greentree, Fedor Jelezko, Jason Twamley

Published Jun 21, 2017• 34 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The cooling of solids by optical means only using anti-Stokes emission has a long history of research and achievements. Such cooling methods have many advantages ranging from no moving parts or fluids through to operation in vacuum and may have applications to cryosurgery. However, achieving large optical cryocooling powers has been difficult to manage except in certain rare-earth crystals but these are mostly toxic and not biocompatible. Through study of the emission and absorption cross sections we find that diamond, containing either nitrogen vacancy (NV) or silicon vacancy defects, shows potential for optical cryocooling and, in particular, NV doping shows promise for optical refrigeration. We study the optical cooling of doped diamond microcrystals ranging 10--250 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ in diameter trapped either in vacuum or in water. For the vacuum case we find NV-doped microdiamond optical cooling below room temperature could exceed $|\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}T|>10$ K for irradiation powers of ${P}_{\text{in}}<100$ mW. We predict that such temperature changes should be easily observed via large alterations in the diffusion constant for optically cryocooled microdiamonds trapped in water in an optical tweezer or via spectroscopic signatures such as the zero-phonon line width or Raman line.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.95.235306

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The cooling of solids by optical means only using anti-Stokes emission has a long history of research and achievements. Such cooling methods have many advantages ranging from no moving parts or fluids through to operation in vacuum and may have applications to cryosurgery. However, achieving large optical cryocooling powers has been difficult to manage except in certain rare-earth crystals but these are mostly toxic and not biocompatible. Through study of the emission and absorption cross sections we find that diamond, containing either nitrogen vacancy (NV) or silicon vacancy defects, shows potential for optical cryocooling and, in particular, NV doping shows promise for optical refrigeration. We study the optical cooling of doped diamond microcrystals ranging 10--250 \ensuremathμm\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}\ensuremathμm in diameter trapped either in vacuum or in water. For the vacuum case we find NV-doped microdiamond optical cooling below room temperature could exceed ∣\ensuremathΔT∣>10|\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}T|>10∣\ensuremathΔT∣>10 K for irradiation powers of Pin<100{P}_{\text{in}}<100Pin​<100 mW. We predict that such temperature changes should be easily observed via large alterations in the diffusion constant for optically cryocooled microdiamonds trapped in water in an optical tweezer or via spectroscopic signatures such as the zero-phonon line width or Raman line.
Anti-Stokes optical cooling in diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers is experimentally and numerically investigated. Photoluminescence-excitation spectroscopy reveals pronounced phonon-assisted anti-Stokes emission under excitation below the zero-phonon line (ZPL). However, the below-ZPL excitation drives photoinduced charge-state conversion between negatively-charged NV- and neutral NV0, thereby suppressing the NV- mediated cooling channel. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements reveal an increase in the effective PL lifetime with excitation density, reflecting an increasing NV0 contribution. By fitting nanosecond and millisecond PL dynamics with a minimal rate-equation model, we extract effective optical pumping and charge-conversion rates, which enables us to quantitatively simulate the cooling performance. The simulations predict a self-limiting behavior of anti-Stokes cooling and clarify the excitation conditions under which net cooling can be sustained within this effective model. The estimated cooling power per NV center is comparable, on a microscopic basis, to values discussed for semiconductor quantum dots and rare-earth optical coolers. These results identify charge-state conversion as a key bottleneck for defect-based optical refrigeration.
Anti-Stokes optical cooling in diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers is investigated using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, time-resolved measurements, and rate-equation modeling. Under excitation below the zero-phonon line, anti-Stokes emission from the negatively charged NV- state appears, but optical excitation also induces charge-state conversion between NV- and neutral NV0. Excitation-dependent PL dynamics reveal a reduction of the NV- population under strong excitation. A minimal rate-equation model constrained by nanosecond and millisecond PL measurements predicts that photoionization suppresses the NV--mediated cooling contribution and leads to self-limiting cooling behavior. The calculations further show that net cooling requires exceptionally high quantum efficiency and does not increase monotonically with excitation density. These results highlight photoinduced charge-state conversion as a key photophysical bottleneck for defect-based anti-Stokes optical cooling.
This review discusses the progress and ongoing efforts in optical refrigeration. Optical refrigeration is a process in which phonons are removed from a solid by anti-Stokes fluorescence. The review first summarizes the history of optical refrigeration, noting the success in cooling rare-earth-doped solids to cryogenic temperatures. It then examines in detail a four-level model of rare-earth-based optical refrigeration. This model elucidates the essential roles that the various material parameters, such as the spacing of the energy levels and the radiative quantum efficiency, play in the process of optical refrigeration. The review then describes the experimental techniques for cryogenic optical refrigeration of rare-earth-doped solids employing non-resonant and resonant optical cavities. It then examines the work on laser cooling of semiconductors, emphasizing the differences between optical refrigeration of semiconductors and rare-earth-doped solids and the new challenges and advantages of semiconductors. It then describes the significant experimental results including the observed optical refrigeration of CdS nanostructures. The review concludes by discussing the engineering challenges to the development of practical optical refrigerators, and the potential advantages and uses of these refrigerators.
Laser cooling of solids, also known as optical refrigeration, is an area of optical science investigating the interaction of light with condensed matter to remove thermal energy of a solid through the interaction of the pump photons and phonons in a solid. Apart from being of fundamental scientific interest, this topic addresses a number of important practical issues such as the development of all solid state optical cryo-coolers, and biological applications. A short history of laser cooling as well as latest achievement of optical refrigeration in rare-earth (RE) doped macro-samples are presented and discussed in the paper. The main technique of laser cooling of RE doped solids based on anti-Stokes fluorescence is presented in this paper. The new approach to optical refrigeration based on the Raman cooling is also considered. It is shown that the future prospects of the research are connected with laser cooling of μm- and nm-sized samples, are in their applications in biophysics in the fundamental studies of low-temperature physics.
We present the first observation of cryogenic operation in an all-solid-state refrigerator. A temperature drop of ~150 K is demonstrated in a 0.2 cm3 rare-earth doped fluoride crystal (Yb:YLF) using anti-Stokes fluorescence, at a record cooling power of 110 mW. Lowest electronic transition within Yb3+ Stark manifold along with cavity enhanced absorption and thermal load management were key in achieving this operation. We show that temperatures down to 100 K are achievable in this arrangement given sufficient absorbed laser power at 1020 nm.
Optical refrigeration of solids with anti-Stokes fluorescence has been widely explored as a vibration-free cryogenic cooling technology. A minimum temperature of 87 K has been demonstrated with rare-earth-ion-doped crystals using optical refrigeration. However, the depletion of the upper-lying energy levels in the ground-state manifold hinders further cooling to below the liquid nitrogen ( LN 2 ) temperatures, restricting its applications. In this work, we introduce a Purcell-enhanced optical refrigeration method to circumvent this limitation. This approach enhances the emission of high-energy photons by coupling the emitters to an optical cavity, blueshifting the mean emission wavelength. Such Purcell-enhanced emission facilitates cooling starting from a lower-energy level in the ground-state manifold, which exhibits a higher occupation below the LN 2 temperatures. Using experimentally measured optical coefficients, our theoretical analysis predicts a minimum achievable internal temperature of about 38 K for a Yb 3 + : YLiF 4 nanocrystal near a cavity under realistic conditions. The proposed method is applicable to other rare-earth-ion-doped materials and semiconductors and will have applications in creating superconducting and other quantum devices through solid-state cooling.