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Optics Letters

Spectrally programmed stimulated photon echo

Masaharu Mitsunaga, Ryuzi Yano, Naoshi Uesugi

Published Feb 15, 1991• 39 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A stimulated photon echo has been observed from the artificially modulated inhomogeneous distribution of a medium. A cryogenic Eu (3+):YAlO(3) sample with a quasi-persistent hole lifetime is exposed to a frequency-scanned and intensity-modulated cw laser for multiple hole burning. A coherent burst equivalent to the stimulated photon echo is obtained by triggering this sample by a pulsed laser. We demonstrate further that any desired transient pulse shape can, in principle, be obtained by appropriate frequency-domain programming, which opens the way to a novel type of optical memory.

DOI
10.1364/ol.16.000264

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A novel coherent transient spectroscopy, cw photon echo, is described. A medium is exposed to broadband cw laser radiation and then to a pulsed laser, resulting in a continuous emission signal from the medium. The temporal profile of this signal is studied using full density-matrix theory for the cases of a two-level system and a multilevel system. It is shown that such signal decays with a homogeneous dephasing time ${\mathit{T}}_{2}$ and can have a quantum-beat-type modulation, reproducing in a single shot the conventional two-pulse photon echo plot versus first-to-second pulse separation. Experimental demonstrations are given for the $^{7}$${\mathit{F}}_{0}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{5}$${\mathit{D}}_{0}$ transition of ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{3+}$ and the $^{3}$${\mathit{H}}_{4}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{1}$${\mathit{D}}_{2}$ transition of ${\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}$; both ions are doped in ${\mathrm{YAlO}}_{3}$. The Eu ions exhibit a single exponential decay with a slight modulation due to the ground-state hyperfine splittings. The temperature dependence of the signal is also studied. The Pr ions show a very deep modulation pattern, which provides excellent agreement with the independent two pulse echo measurement. A numerical simulation based on the modulation theory also agrees with the observed decay curves and the nuclear axis configuration in this crystal is discussed.

Physical Review A•Aug 1, 1990•13 citations
A stimulated photon echo has been observed from the artificially modulated inhomogeneous distribution of a medium. A cryogenic Eu (3+):YAlO(3) sample with a quasi-persistent hole lifetime is exposed to a frequency-scanned and intensity-modulated cw laser for multiple hole burning. A coherent burst equivalent to the stimulated photon echo is obtained by triggering this sample by a pulsed laser. We demonstrate further that any desired transient pulse shape can, in principle, be obtained by appropriate frequency-domain programming, which opens the way to a novel type of optical memory.
It is acknowledged that inhomogeneous absorption bands consisting of narrow homogeneous zero-phonon lines (ZPL) can be used for the purpose of optical data storage in the frequency dimension /1/. Persistent spectral hole-burning (PSHB) /2,3/ has made it feasible to preserve the recorded frequency domain information for a practically unlimited period of time. Via PSHB the inhomogeneous distribution function of the resonance frequencies of the impurity zero-phonon lines can be altered in an almost arbitrary fashion. This, in turn, makes it possible to manipulate the absorption coefficient and correlated to it index of refraction of the optical storage media. On this basis it has been proposed to use PSHB for the shaping of laser pulses via Fourier synthesis /4/. Holographic storage of time domain optical signals in PSHB media was proposed by Mossberg /5/. In the first experiments on the PSHB time domain holography the reproduction of various temporal shapes of picosecond pulses was demonstrated in dye doped polymers cooled to liquid helium temperature /6/. Earlier Zuikov et al. observed correlation between the temporal shapes of nanosecond excitation laser pulses and photon echo signals /7/. Since that time a variety of experiments on time domain holography in different resonant media have been reported (see /8/ and references therein).
The photon-echo memory[1], or the time-domain optical data storage, resembles the hole-burning memory [2] in that the inhomogeneous absorption line of a material is employed as a storage medium and the information is stored in it as a frequency-dependent absorption change with the resolution determined by the homogeneous width. Having the common memory capacity N given by the inhomogeneous-to-homogeneous width ratio, both types of memories share common problems like low-temperature operation, spectral diffusion and so on. Although a storage medium is common, storage techniques are definitely different for the two memories. The photon-echo memory utilizes the temporal interference effect between a reference pulse and a data pulse and their interference pattern is stored as a population grating in the frequency domain. In this sense this is a time-domain analog of holography where the spatial interference pattern between a reference beam and a data beam is stored in a medium as a population grating in the real space. Like the spatially diffracted beam from the read beam gives the information stored in the hologram, the “temporally diffracted pulse", or the photon echo, after the read pulse can give the information stored in the inhomogeneous distribution.
Optical memories based on spectral hole burning (SHB) and stimulated photon echoes (SPE) are attracting much attention. Both approaches add an extra dimension for addressing (frequency and temporal dimension respectively) to the spatial dimensions. With these concepts the storage density can become 103 – 106 times higher than in conventional optical memories. In both approaches, the ratio of the inhomogeneous line width to the homogeneous line width of the ions activated in the storage process determines the improvement in storage density. Compared to the SHB approach, SPE has certain advantages including high R/W rate and ability to process the stored (spatial as well we temporal) information. Using SPE, the authors have experimentally realised the AND, OR and NOT logical operations [1,2]. Further all optical processing, such as temporal pattern recognition, can be done using SPE.
Several investigations have shown that in some systems stimulated photon echoes may be obtained over times much longer than the excited state relaxation time T11,2. It has been claimed that the mechanism for this anomalously long storage time is the formation of a frequency dependent modulation of the ground state population which persists because of spectral hole-burning1. Such a population grating produced by coherent multipulse excitation and spectral hole-burning has been measured only in a few cases3.
We apply for the first time a novel coherent transient, the cw photon echo. The propagation direction of the optical coherence prepared in a medium by a broadband cw laser beam is reversed by a pair of counterpropagating laser pulses, resulting in a continuous emission of the signal. The signal decays with a phase relaxation time T2{\mathrm{T}}_{2}T2​ and can have a quantum-beat-type modulation, giving the same wave form in one single shot as the plot of echo intensity versus pulse separation in a standard two-pulse echo experiment. Experimental demonstration is given in a Eu3+{\mathrm{Eu}}^{3+}Eu3+:YAlO3{\mathrm{YAlO}}_{3}YAlO3​ crystal.
A novel coherent transient spectroscopy, cw photon echo, is described. A medium is exposed to broadband cw laser radiation and then to a pulsed laser, resulting in a continuous emission signal from the medium. The temporal profile of this signal is studied using full density-matrix theory for the cases of a two-level system and a multilevel system. It is shown that such signal decays with a homogeneous dephasing time T2{\mathit{T}}_{2}T2​ and can have a quantum-beat-type modulation, reproducing in a single shot the conventional two-pulse photon echo plot versus first-to-second pulse separation. Experimental demonstrations are given for the 7^{7}7F0{\mathit{F}}_{0}F0​${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{5}$D0{\mathit{D}}_{0}D0​ transition of Eu3+{\mathrm{Eu}}^{3+}Eu3+ and the 3^{3}3H4{\mathit{H}}_{4}H4​${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{1}$D2{\mathit{D}}_{2}D2​ transition of Pr3+{\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}Pr3+; both ions are doped in YAlO3{\mathrm{YAlO}}_{3}YAlO3​. The Eu ions exhibit a single exponential decay with a slight modulation due to the ground-state hyperfine splittings. The temperature dependence of the signal is also studied. The Pr ions show a very deep modulation pattern, which provides excellent agreement with the independent two pulse echo measurement. A numerical simulation based on the modulation theory also agrees with the observed decay curves and the nuclear axis configuration in this crystal is discussed.