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Optics Letters

Photon-gated hole burning: a new mechanism using two-step photoionization

Albrecht Winnacker, Robert M. Shelby, R. M. Macfarlane

Published Jul 1, 1985• 234 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have observed photon-gated spectral hole burning, i.e., hole burning that occurs only in the presence of an additional gating-light source. Gating enhancement factors of 10(4) were observed. In BaClF:Sm(2+) this involves two step photoionization of Sm(2+) and leads to persistent holes in the (4)F(0) --> (5)D(0) (687.9-nm) and (7)F(0) --> (5)D(1) (629.7-nm) absorption lines. The hole widths of 25 MHz at 2 K are much narrower than the inhomogeneous broadening of 16 GHz. The action spectrum of the gating shows a threshold behavior around 2.5 eV. Erasing studies show that Sm(3)+ acts as a trap for the released electrons. A remarkable and novel feature is that the holes can be recovered after temperature cycling to 300 K.

DOI
10.1364/ol.10.000350

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Persistent spectral hole-burning (PHB) has been proposed as the essential element of a frequency domain optical storage system1 in which the frequency at which a hole is burned in an inhomogeneously broadened absorption line at low temperatures serves as an additional dimension for the storage of digital information. Essentially all of the mechanisms studied until recently have been single-photon mechanisms, i.e., the photoionduced change leading to hole-burning (writing) for a given center occurs with a certain fixed probability after the absorption of one photon. Such linear, monophotonic processes suffer from the drawback that the act of detecting holes (reading) can also produce changes in the absorption line. Recent modeling studies of the generalized single-photon process2 have shown that thousands to tens of thousands of reads can be obtained from single-photon mechanisms only when the material possesses high quantum efficiency and low absorption cross section. These restrictive requirements do not apply for photon-gated hole-burning mechanisms, i.e., those mechanisms for which hole-burning occurs only in the presence of an additional “gating” light source, because for these mechanisms, reading is performed in the absence of the gating light and is therefore nondestructive.

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Trap Effect in Spctral Hole Burning of Sm2+ Doped Crystals

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Since the first observation of persistent photon gated spectral hole burning in BaFCl:Sm2+ at liquid helium temperature[1], the successful improvement on this material has been performed in our laboratory by adding bromine and alkline earth metals in the melt to form MyM'1-yFClxBr1-x:Sm (M,M'=Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba; x,y=0-1) system, in which the inhomogeneous line is broadened significantly[2-5] and room temperature hole burning is realized [6]. The hole burning mechanism is found to be photoionization of Sm2+ followed by electron trapping[1]. A kind of principal electron trap is considered to be Sm3+[1], which brings about hole refilling in the holes burnt formerly as burning the next hole because the generated Sm3+ corresponding to the former holes can trap electrons again released in the next hole burning[7]. That means, writing will erase the stored information. To avoiding this effect, introducing an other kind of trap different from Sm3+ for hole burning is necessary In the present paper, we report the results of hole burning in Sm singly doped and Sm, Yb doubly doped SrFCl crystals at 77K and room temperature. Two different trap effects in hole burning are observed and discussed.

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R. M. Macfarlane, J. C. Vial

Photon-gated hole burning, or selective bleaching enabled by a second light source, has been observed in ${\mathrm{Co}}^{2+}$ in tetrahedral sites of ${\mathrm{LiGa}}_{5}$${\mathrm{O}}_{8}$. This leads to long-lived spectral holes with a width of \ensuremath{\sim}1 GHz at 1.6 K. It is proposed that two-step photoionization of ${\mathrm{Co}}^{2+}$ is responsible for the hole burning. Much narrower (\ensuremath{\sim}40 MHz) transient holes and antiholes were burned using population storage in nuclear hyperfine levels. These two mechanisms of hole burning are reported here for transition-metal ions for what is believed to be the first time.

•Jun 9, 1986•0 citations
We have observed photon-gated spectral hole burning, i.e., hole burning that occurs only in the presence of an additional gating-light source. Gating enhancement factors of 10(4) were observed. In BaClF:Sm(2+) this involves two step photoionization of Sm(2+) and leads to persistent holes in the (4)F(0) --> (5)D(0) (687.9-nm) and (7)F(0) --> (5)D(1) (629.7-nm) absorption lines. The hole widths of 25 MHz at 2 K are much narrower than the inhomogeneous broadening of 16 GHz. The action spectrum of the gating shows a threshold behavior around 2.5 eV. Erasing studies show that Sm(3)+ acts as a trap for the released electrons. A remarkable and novel feature is that the holes can be recovered after temperature cycling to 300 K.
Spectral hole burning in solids is a selective bleaching of a small portion of an inhomogeneously broadened optical transition by a laser. In the photon gated holeburning process spectral holes are burned in two steps. The first is provided by a narrow band laser resonant with the inhomogeneously broadened transition and the second (gating) can be initiated by a broad band light source. Photon gated spectral hole burning was reported recently in 7F0→5D0 and 7F0→5D1 absorption lines of Sm2+ in BaClF(1). In this poster we report on the spectral holeburning behaviour of 1F0→5D2 transition. We found that even in absence of additional light source for gating, permanent holes can be burned. This self gating behaviour is consistent with the observation that the optimum frequency following 5D0 excitation is ≈ 22 000cm-1 so that two photons of energy 5D2 - 7F0 are sufficient to produce photoionisation. We have analysed the light intensity dependance of hole area and a simple model indicate that the electron transfer following the photoionisation is strongly dependant on the ion - electron trap distance.
Persistent spectral hole-burning (PHB) has been proposed as the essential element of a frequency domain optical storage system1 in which the frequency at which a hole is burned in an inhomogeneously broadened absorption line at low temperatures serves as an additional dimension for the storage of digital information. Essentially all of the mechanisms studied until recently have been single-photon mechanisms, i.e., the photoionduced change leading to hole-burning (writing) for a given center occurs with a certain fixed probability after the absorption of one photon. Such linear, monophotonic processes suffer from the drawback that the act of detecting holes (reading) can also produce changes in the absorption line. Recent modeling studies of the generalized single-photon process2 have shown that thousands to tens of thousands of reads can be obtained from single-photon mechanisms only when the material possesses high quantum efficiency and low absorption cross section. These restrictive requirements do not apply for photon-gated hole-burning mechanisms, i.e., those mechanisms for which hole-burning occurs only in the presence of an additional “gating” light source, because for these mechanisms, reading is performed in the absence of the gating light and is therefore nondestructive.
Since the first observation of persistent photon gated spectral hole burning in BaFCl:Sm2+ at liquid helium temperature[1], the successful improvement on this material has been performed in our laboratory by adding bromine and alkline earth metals in the melt to form MyM'1-yFClxBr1-x:Sm (M,M'=Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba; x,y=0-1) system, in which the inhomogeneous line is broadened significantly[2-5] and room temperature hole burning is realized [6]. The hole burning mechanism is found to be photoionization of Sm2+ followed by electron trapping[1]. A kind of principal electron trap is considered to be Sm3+[1], which brings about hole refilling in the holes burnt formerly as burning the next hole because the generated Sm3+ corresponding to the former holes can trap electrons again released in the next hole burning[7]. That means, writing will erase the stored information. To avoiding this effect, introducing an other kind of trap different from Sm3+ for hole burning is necessary In the present paper, we report the results of hole burning in Sm singly doped and Sm, Yb doubly doped SrFCl crystals at 77K and room temperature. Two different trap effects in hole burning are observed and discussed.
Photon-gated hole burning, or selective bleaching enabled by a second light source, has been observed in Co2+{\mathrm{Co}}^{2+}Co2+ in tetrahedral sites of LiGa5{\mathrm{LiGa}}_{5}LiGa5​O8{\mathrm{O}}_{8}O8​. This leads to long-lived spectral holes with a width of \ensuremath{\sim}1 GHz at 1.6 K. It is proposed that two-step photoionization of Co2+{\mathrm{Co}}^{2+}Co2+ is responsible for the hole burning. Much narrower (\ensuremath{\sim}40 MHz) transient holes and antiholes were burned using population storage in nuclear hyperfine levels. These two mechanisms of hole burning are reported here for transition-metal ions for what is believed to be the first time.