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Energy levels of ytterbium in indium phosphide

C.A.J. Ammerlaan, Ingrid de Maat-Gersdorf

Published Jan 1, 1999• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In its regular charge state Yb 3+ , the ytterbium impurity in indium-phosphide has the electronic configuration 4f 13 , orbital momentum L = 3 and spin S = 1/2. Ground and excited states with the total spins J = 7/2 and J = 5/2, respectively, are formed by spin-orbit interaction. The EPR spectrum of the centre provides by resolved hyperfine interactions with the isotopes 171 Yb (nuclear spin I = 1/2, natural abundance α = 14%) and 173 Yb (I = 5/2, a = 16%) direct evidence for a one-ytterbium centre in a high-symmetry environment The optical transition between the excited and ground states with an energy around wavenumber σ = 9985 cm -1 (wavelength λ = 1.0015 μm) is easily observed in photoluminescence. A cubic crystal field lifts the eight-fold degeneracy of the ground state 2 F 7/2 into a Γ 6 doublet, a F, doublet and a Γ 8 quartet, whereas the excited state 2 F 5/2 is split into a Γ 7 doublet and a Γ 8 quartet. The ordering of the crystal-field levels is still a matter of discussion, both for the ground and excited spin-orbit multiplets. Several experiments providing information on the ordering will be briefly discussed. These include the luminescence intensity, temperature, hydrostatic stress and magnetic field effects on the optical spectrum, magnetic resonance, together with a crystal-field analysis. A conclusion towards a Γ 7 - Γ 6 - Γ 8 ordering for the ground state multiplet and Γ 7 - Γ 8 for the excited state multiplet, known as the Masterov model, will be drawn.

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Experiments with strongly interacting Yb atoms in optical lattices

Lorenzo Franchi

Recently, alkaline-earth (-like) atoms and alkaline earth metals (AEL) gained experimental and theoretical interest principally related to the possibility offered in metrological field by the excitation of visible and UV clock transitions. AEL atoms, in their neutral \nform and in the ground state, have a null total electronic momentum, resulting nearly insensitive to external magnetic fields. While the absence of magnetic coupling does not allow the simply interactions tuning by exploiting Feshbach resonances as it occurs \nin alkaline atoms, these atoms are characterized by highly symmetric ground states allowing the simulation of SU(N) systems. 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The degeneracy related to the SU(N) symmetry can be controllably removed by applying a two-photon Raman coupling, allowing for the simulation of systems with broken symmetries. \nBesides the possibility to induce couplings within the nuclear-spin degree of freedom, AEL atoms also offer the possibility to access a second, electronic degree of freedom; the possibility to address visible doubly-forbidden transitions between long-lived electronic \nclock states comprises a fantastic tool that allowed the building of optical lattice clocks improving metrological measurements and offering a richer platform for simulating complex systems. \nThe main difference between the two internal degrees of freedom offered by AEL atoms is that the possibility to address ultranarrow optical clock transitions exists also for AEL bosonic isotopes in which the nuclear-spin degree of freedom is not present because the \ntotal atomic momentum is absent. \nThe possibilities related to the excitation of long-lived metastable triplet levels, that, referring only to the lowest lying atomic levels are 3P(0;2) (in Russell-Saunders approximation they result doubly forbidden with respect to the electric dipole operator), are \nmultiple. If bosonic atoms are considered, the metrological applications based on the clock transition at the state of the art have performances comparable to optical lattice clocks realized with fermionic isotopes. Bosonic isotopes, requiring external fields in order \nto excite transitions from the ground state to long-lived states, have been proposed as good candidates in order to build a reliable and fast system in which controllable qu-bits could be realized. Most of these applications, and in particular the possibility to create \nquantum computers with neutral atoms, crucially rely on the control of the scattering properties of atoms in different electronic states. \nRegarding fermionic isotopes, the clock transitions recently allowed for the demonstration of spin-orbit coupling and quantum simulation via the synthetic dimension approach. As recently discovered, the clock transitions from the ground to the 3P(0;2) states give rise to rich interactions possibilities between atoms in the fundamental and in the metastable states. The spin-exchange interaction that has been observed between ground and metastable states, supports also a new kind of Feshbach resonance, called Orbital Feshbach Resonance (OrbFR). As occurs in magnetic Feshbach resonances for alkali atoms, also the OrbFR, that occurs in AEL atoms, supports the existence of extremely shallow homonuclear molecules. After considering the (s-wave) scattering parameters of all the AEL atoms that have been characterized experimentally, 173Yb is the only isotope in which the production and manipulation of Orbital Feshbach molecules (produced e.g. with photoassociation) is experimentally viable. Molecules generated by employing this atom, may lead to the investigation of fermionic superfluidity in still-unexplored regimes. In this thesis we report the characterization of interactions in bosonic 174Yb isotope by probing the clock transition between the singlet 1S0 ground state and the triplet 3P0 \nmetastable excited state. Interactions and inelastic losses between ground-state and excited metastable-state atoms have been experimentally determined with high accuracy, resulting consistent with an indipendent evaluation realized in the same period by Yb \nBEC group at LKB. \nThe obtained values for the interactions among ground and metastable atoms for the specified isotope constitute a first step in order to design an experimental system in which quantum information can be realized by means of exploiting the clock transition of bosonic Yb atoms. \nThis work, by exploiting the internal degrees of freedom of 173Yb atoms, reports a study on Orbital Feshbach molecules, showing experimentally the possibility to employ the nuclear degree of freedom in 173Yb atoms to manipulate and precisely detect homo-nuclear photoassociated molecules. \nThis first result regarding this new kind of shallow-bound molecules allowed the characterization of interactions between ground-state and metastable-state of 173Yb atoms. \nThis first intensive study of orbital Feshbach molecules is a fundamental step for future studies on the possibilities offered by these homo-nuclear molecules. \nFinally, we exploited the ground state SU(N) symmetry and its controlled breaking via Raman coupling (in 173Yb N = 1...6) to simulate the physical processes that are supposed to be driven by the hybridation of d-orbitals of iron atoms in iron based-superconductors, \nin which orbital-selective Mott insulating phases have been experimentally observed and are suspected to be the fundamental ingredient to achieve high-temperature superconductivity in these compounds.

•Jan 1, 2020•0 citations
In its regular charge state Yb 3+ , the ytterbium impurity in indium-phosphide has the electronic configuration 4f 13 , orbital momentum L = 3 and spin S = 1/2. Ground and excited states with the total spins J = 7/2 and J = 5/2, respectively, are formed by spin-orbit interaction. The EPR spectrum of the centre provides by resolved hyperfine interactions with the isotopes 171 Yb (nuclear spin I = 1/2, natural abundance α = 14%) and 173 Yb (I = 5/2, a = 16%) direct evidence for a one-ytterbium centre in a high-symmetry environment The optical transition between the excited and ground states with an energy around wavenumber σ = 9985 cm -1 (wavelength λ = 1.0015 μm) is easily observed in photoluminescence. A cubic crystal field lifts the eight-fold degeneracy of the ground state 2 F 7/2 into a Γ 6 doublet, a F, doublet and a Γ 8 quartet, whereas the excited state 2 F 5/2 is split into a Γ 7 doublet and a Γ 8 quartet. The ordering of the crystal-field levels is still a matter of discussion, both for the ground and excited spin-orbit multiplets. Several experiments providing information on the ordering will be briefly discussed. These include the luminescence intensity, temperature, hydrostatic stress and magnetic field effects on the optical spectrum, magnetic resonance, together with a crystal-field analysis. A conclusion towards a Γ 7 - Γ 6 - Γ 8 ordering for the ground state multiplet and Γ 7 - Γ 8 for the excited state multiplet, known as the Masterov model, will be drawn.
Ytterbium-doped InP emits a characteristic luminescence band near 1.0 \ensuremath{\mu}m, arising from intra-4f-shell transitions of Yb3+{\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}Yb3+(4f13{\mathrm{f}}^{13}f13). A Zeeman analysis of the complex set of emission lines, in magnetic fields up to 22 T, reveals that the spectrum arises almost entirely from only one type of cubic Yb center, presumably on a substitutional cation site.
High Rydberg levels of ytterbium were studied in a beam of metastable atoms. Levels of the series 4f14^{14}14 6snsnsnd were populated from the metastable 4f14^{14}14 6s 6p 3^33Po_oo​ level by means of the U.V. light of a frequency-doubled single-mode dye laser and detected using the field ionization technique. The critical ionization fields FcF_cFc​ of the levels 4f14^{14}14 6snsnsnd 3^33D1_11​ (24 ≤ n ≤ 57) were measured and found to obey the saddle point law (FcF_cFc​ = (16 n∗4n^{*4}n∗4)−1^{-1}−1). The hyperfine structures of the odd isotopes were investigated. They are very peculiar due to the fact that the hyperfine interaction is of the same order of magnitude as (or even for the highest nnn values, much more important than) the spin-orbit and electrostatic interactions. A theoretical account of the observed structures using the Slater-Condon parametric method is given. The relative influence of the excited (nnnd) and of the non-excited (6s) optical electron could thus be studied. Furthermore the influence of a valence level perturbing only the odd isotopes components for nnn = 26 was demonstrated.
Electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of Yb 3+ ions in the optically bistable compound Yb:CsCdBr 3 are presented. The features observed are assigned to the symmetrically coupled pair complexes of the type Yb 3+ -V Cd -Yb 3+ (V Cd being a cadmium vacancy) whose axis is parallel to the crystallographic c -axis. There are no asymmetric pairs of the type Yb 3+ -Yb 3+ -V Cd . It is shown that simulation of the spectra is possible only if an exchange interaction is taken into account in the spin Hamiltonian. The value of J = -0.0016 cm -1 shows that the exchange interaction is antiferromagnetic but extremely weak. It is also found that there is a significant relaxation (about 12%) of Yb 3+ ions toward the Cd vacancy. From the experimental g -tensor values, it is established that the lower ground state of Yb 3+ ions in CsCdBr 3 is mainly composed of 4f ϕ (63%) and 4f δ (32%) ytterbium orbitals. It has been previously proposed that optical bistability is due to asymmetric pairs of the type Yb 3+ -Yb 3+ -V Cd . On the basis of the present work, this now appears unlikely.
We report on a high-resolution optical and magneto-optical spectroscopy, luminescence, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies of yttrium orthophosphate single crystals doped with erbium, which are promising telecom-wavelength materials for applications in quantum electronics and quantum information processing. An observation of the hyperfine structure in optical spectra of 167Er^{167}\mathrm{Er}167Er isotope in Er:YPO4{\mathrm{Er}:\mathrm{YPO}}_{4}Er:YPO4​ is presented. Energies and symmetries of 40 crystal-field levels of Er3+{\mathrm{Er}}^{3+}Er3+ in Er:YPO4{\mathrm{Er}:\mathrm{YPO}}_{4}Er:YPO4​ and ggg factors of some of them were determined and successfully modeled on the basis of crystal-field calculations. The obtained set of crystal-field parameters was used in modeling the hyperfine structure observed in the optical and EPR spectra of Er:YPO4{\mathrm{Er}:\mathrm{YPO}}_{4}Er:YPO4​ single crystals.
The $^{2}F_{7/2}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}^{2}F_{5/2}$ optical transitions of Yb3+\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{b}}^{3+}Yb3+ doped into Y3Al5O12{\mathrm{Y}}_{3}\mathrm{A}{\mathrm{l}}_{5}{\mathrm{O}}_{12}Y3​Al5​O12​ (YAG) were studied for potential quantum information and photonic signal processing applications. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy located the energy levels of the ground 2F7/2^{2}F_{7/2}2F7/2​ and excited 2F5/2^{2}F_{5/2}2F5/2​ manifolds, allowing inconsistencies between previous assignments of crystal field splittings in the literature to be resolved. These measurements reveal an unusually large splitting between the first and second levels in both the ground and excited multiplets, potentially providing for reduced sensitivity to thermally induced decoherence and spin-lattice relaxation. Spectral hole burning through two-level saturation was observed, determining the excited state lifetime to be 860 \ensuremath{\mu}s and resolving ambiguities in previous fluorescence measurements that were caused by the large radiation trapping effects in this material. Optical decoherence measurements using two-pulse photon echoes gave a homogeneous linewidth of 18 kHz for an applied magnetic field of 1 T, narrowing to 5 kHz at 2.5 T. The observed decoherence was described by spectral diffusion attributed to $\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{b}}^{3+}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{b}}^{3+}$ magnetic dipole interactions. Laser absorption determined an inhomogeneous linewidth of 3.6 GHz for this transition in this 0.05%-doped crystal, which is narrower than for any other rare-earth-ion transition previously studied in the YAG host. The temperature dependence of the transition energy and linewidth of the lowest 2F7/2^{2}F_{7/2}2F7/2​ to lowest 2F5/2^{2}F_{5/2}2F5/2​ transition centered at 968.571 nm measured from 4 K to 300 K was well described by phonon scattering at higher temperatures, with an additional anomalous linear temperature-dependent broadening at temperatures below 80 K. Two magnetically inequivalent subgroups of Yb3+\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{b}}^{3+}Yb3+ ions were identified when a magnetic field was applied along the $\ensuremath{\langle}111\ensuremath{\rangle}$ axis, as expected for the D2{D}_{2}D2​ sites in the cubic symmetry crystal, with ground and excited state effective ggg-values of gg=3.40{g}_{\mathrm{g}}=3.40gg​=3.40 (3.34) and ge=1.04{g}_{\mathrm{e}}=1.04ge​=1.04 (2.01), respectively. Together with the convenient diode laser wavelength of this transition, our study suggests that Yb3+\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{b}}^{3+}Yb3+:YAG is a promising material system for spectral hole burning and quantum information applications.
Recently, alkaline-earth (-like) atoms and alkaline earth metals (AEL) gained experimental and theoretical interest principally related to the possibility offered in metrological field by the excitation of visible and UV clock transitions. AEL atoms, in their neutral \nform and in the ground state, have a null total electronic momentum, resulting nearly insensitive to external magnetic fields. While the absence of magnetic coupling does not allow the simply interactions tuning by exploiting Feshbach resonances as it occurs \nin alkaline atoms, these atoms are characterized by highly symmetric ground states allowing the simulation of SU(N) systems. This characteristic, that can be attributed in AEL atoms to the decoupling between electronic and nuclear atomic momenta, can be \nexploited to perform quantum simulation of a wealth of novel systems and constitutes a fundamental property of isotopes that have a nonzero nuclear spin, as it occurs for all the fermionic species and in particular for 173Yb and 87Sr. This feature also ensures the \nabsence of spin-changing collisions in ground state sublevels, implying that nuclear-spin mixtures are observationally stable. This attribute is fundamental for the study of transitions between different nuclear-spin states, for example by exploiting the two-photon \nRaman coupling. The degeneracy related to the SU(N) symmetry can be controllably removed by applying a two-photon Raman coupling, allowing for the simulation of systems with broken symmetries. \nBesides the possibility to induce couplings within the nuclear-spin degree of freedom, AEL atoms also offer the possibility to access a second, electronic degree of freedom; the possibility to address visible doubly-forbidden transitions between long-lived electronic \nclock states comprises a fantastic tool that allowed the building of optical lattice clocks improving metrological measurements and offering a richer platform for simulating complex systems. \nThe main difference between the two internal degrees of freedom offered by AEL atoms is that the possibility to address ultranarrow optical clock transitions exists also for AEL bosonic isotopes in which the nuclear-spin degree of freedom is not present because the \ntotal atomic momentum is absent. \nThe possibilities related to the excitation of long-lived metastable triplet levels, that, referring only to the lowest lying atomic levels are 3P(0;2) (in Russell-Saunders approximation they result doubly forbidden with respect to the electric dipole operator), are \nmultiple. If bosonic atoms are considered, the metrological applications based on the clock transition at the state of the art have performances comparable to optical lattice clocks realized with fermionic isotopes. Bosonic isotopes, requiring external fields in order \nto excite transitions from the ground state to long-lived states, have been proposed as good candidates in order to build a reliable and fast system in which controllable qu-bits could be realized. Most of these applications, and in particular the possibility to create \nquantum computers with neutral atoms, crucially rely on the control of the scattering properties of atoms in different electronic states. \nRegarding fermionic isotopes, the clock transitions recently allowed for the demonstration of spin-orbit coupling and quantum simulation via the synthetic dimension approach. As recently discovered, the clock transitions from the ground to the 3P(0;2) states give rise to rich interactions possibilities between atoms in the fundamental and in the metastable states. The spin-exchange interaction that has been observed between ground and metastable states, supports also a new kind of Feshbach resonance, called Orbital Feshbach Resonance (OrbFR). As occurs in magnetic Feshbach resonances for alkali atoms, also the OrbFR, that occurs in AEL atoms, supports the existence of extremely shallow homonuclear molecules. After considering the (s-wave) scattering parameters of all the AEL atoms that have been characterized experimentally, 173Yb is the only isotope in which the production and manipulation of Orbital Feshbach molecules (produced e.g. with photoassociation) is experimentally viable. Molecules generated by employing this atom, may lead to the investigation of fermionic superfluidity in still-unexplored regimes. In this thesis we report the characterization of interactions in bosonic 174Yb isotope by probing the clock transition between the singlet 1S0 ground state and the triplet 3P0 \nmetastable excited state. Interactions and inelastic losses between ground-state and excited metastable-state atoms have been experimentally determined with high accuracy, resulting consistent with an indipendent evaluation realized in the same period by Yb \nBEC group at LKB. \nThe obtained values for the interactions among ground and metastable atoms for the specified isotope constitute a first step in order to design an experimental system in which quantum information can be realized by means of exploiting the clock transition of bosonic Yb atoms. \nThis work, by exploiting the internal degrees of freedom of 173Yb atoms, reports a study on Orbital Feshbach molecules, showing experimentally the possibility to employ the nuclear degree of freedom in 173Yb atoms to manipulate and precisely detect homo-nuclear photoassociated molecules. \nThis first result regarding this new kind of shallow-bound molecules allowed the characterization of interactions between ground-state and metastable-state of 173Yb atoms. \nThis first intensive study of orbital Feshbach molecules is a fundamental step for future studies on the possibilities offered by these homo-nuclear molecules. \nFinally, we exploited the ground state SU(N) symmetry and its controlled breaking via Raman coupling (in 173Yb N = 1...6) to simulate the physical processes that are supposed to be driven by the hybridation of d-orbitals of iron atoms in iron based-superconductors, \nin which orbital-selective Mott insulating phases have been experimentally observed and are suspected to be the fundamental ingredient to achieve high-temperature superconductivity in these compounds.