Physical review. B, Condensed matter
Optical dephasing, hyperfine structure, and hyperfine relaxation associated with the 580.8-nm F07 −5 D0 transition of europium in Eu3+ : Y2 O3
William Randall Babbitt, A. Lezama, THOMAS W. MOSSBERG
Abstract
We have employed spectral-hole-burning, coherent-transient, and optical-rf double-resonance techniques to measure various parameters associated with the 580.8-nm $^{7}\mathrm{F}_{0}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{5}$${\mathrm{D}}_{0}$ transition of ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{3+}$ doped into ${\mathrm{Y}}_{2}$${\mathrm{O}}_{3}$. In particular, we have measured the hyperfine splittings of the terminal levels (for both $^{151}\mathrm{Eu}$ and $^{153}\mathrm{Eu}$), an effective thermalization rate of the ground-state ${(}^{7}$${\mathrm{F}}_{0}$) hyperfine manifold over the temperature range of \ensuremath{\simeq}4--15 K, and the homogeneous linewidth of the optical transition over the range of \ensuremath{\simeq}14--35 K. Large ratios of inhomogeneous to homogeneous linewidth at elevated temperatures (${10}^{3}$ at 25 K) and long ground-state hyperfine thermalization times (>30 h at 4 K) make this an interesting crystal in the context of spectrally addressable optical memories.