Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
High-density frequency domain storage in alkaline earth sulfides double doped with lanthanide
Mohamed F. Aly, Levent Biyikli, Sameh I. Dardona, Zameer U. Hasan
Abstract
Previously we have reported the largest number of photon- gated spectral holes ever burned in a solid. This has interest in their applications in optical storage. However, multiple holeburning in MgS:Eu resulted in noticeable erasure of the previously burned holes. This was attributed to the mechanism of holeburning in this material where both Eu2+ and Eu3+ are stable ions. In gated holeburning, Eu2+ ions are ionized. Eu3+ that form deep traps, capture the electrons generated during the holeburning and are converted to Eu2+. The Zero Phonon Line (ZPL) of these newly formed Eu2+ ions are randomly distributed across the inhomogeneous line causing a partial erasure of the holes burned earlier. This reduces the efficiency of holeburning. Co-doping of MgS:Eu and CaS:Eu with different rare earth (RE) ions has been investigated to provide deep electron traps other than Eu3+. Furthermore, co-doping provides the opportunity to burn holes in multiple ZPLs belonging to different REs, thus increasing the storage density many folds.