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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Optical Coherence Increase by Diffusion Enhanced Optical Pumping in a Rare-Earth Doped Crystal

Sacha Welinski, Alban Ferrier, Philippe Goldner, Alexey Tiranov, Moritz Businger, Mikael Afzelius

Published Jan 1, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a new spin polarization mechanism that combines optical pumping with spin diffusion to achieve large spin polarization in 171Yb3+:Y2SiO5. This is used to increase optical coherence lifetime from 0.3 to 0.8 ms.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_qels.2021.fm4m.4

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Rare earth ions are actively investigated as optically addressable spin systems for quantum technologies thanks to their long optical and spin coherence lifetimes. 171Yb3+, which has 1/2 electron and nuclear spins, recently raised interest for its simple hyperfine structure that moreover can result in long coherence lifetimes at zero magnetic field, an unusual property for paramagnetic rare earth ions. Here, we report on the optical inhomogeneous and homogeneous linewidths in 171Yb3+:Y2SiO5 (site 2) for different doping concentrations. While inhomogeneous linewidth is not correlated to 171Yb3+ concentration, the homogeneous one strongly decreases between 10 and 2 ppm doping level, reaching 255 Hz at 3 K. This is attributed to a slowing down of 171Yb3+ ground state spin flip-flops.

Оптика и спектроскопия•Jan 1, 2022•0 citations
Rare-earth doped crystals have long coherence times and the potential to provide quantum interfaces between microwave and optical photons. Such applications benefit from a high cooperativity between the spin ensemble and a microwave cavity---this motivates an increase in the rare-earth ion concentration which in turn impacts the spin coherence lifetime. We measure spin dynamics of two rare-earth spin species, 145Nd^{145}\mathrm{Nd}145Nd and Yb, doped into Y2SiO5{\mathrm{Y}}_{\text{2}}{\mathrm{SiO}}_{\text{5}}Y2​SiO5​, coupled to a planar microwave resonator in the high-cooperativity regime, in the temperature range 1.2K1.2\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}1.2K to 14mK14\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mK}14mK. We identify relevant decoherence mechanisms, including instantaneous diffusion arising from resonant spins and temperature-dependent spectral diffusion from impurity electron and nuclear spins in the environment. We explore two methods to mitigate the effects of spectral diffusion in the Yb system in the low-temperature limit, first, using magnetic fields of up to 1 T to suppress impurity spin dynamics and, second, using transitions with low effective ggg factors to reduce sensitivity to such dynamics. Finally, we demonstrate how the ``clock transition'' present in the 171Yb^{171}\mathrm{Yb}171Yb system at zero field can be used to increase coherence times up to T2=6(1)ms{T}_{2}=6(1)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ms}T2​=6(1)ms.
Rare earth doped crystals are a promising platform for long-distance quantum communications, where they can perform quantum light storage. Among different systems, 171{}^{171}171Yb3+{}^{3+}3+-doped Y2{}_{2}2​SiO5{}_{5}5​ (YSO) crystals stand out because of long optical and spin coherence times, and large hyperfine splitting, enabling long-time storage over large bandwidths. Here, the authors study the mechanisms affecting the optical decoherence in a broad range of temperatures (40 mK to 18 K) using high-resolution spectroscopic techniques, and identify ways to further improve the crystal's properties.
Abstract Nanoscale systems that coherently couple to light and possess spins offer key capabilities for quantum technologies. However, an outstanding challenge is to preserve properties, and especially optical and spin coherence lifetimes, at the nanoscale. Here, we report optically controlled nuclear spins with long coherence lifetimes (T2) in rare-earth-doped nanoparticles. We detect spins echoes and measure a spin coherence lifetime of 2.9 ± 0.3 ms at 5 K under an external magnetic field of 9 mT, a T2 value comparable to those obtained in bulk rare-earth crystals. Moreover, we achieve spin T2 extension using all-optical spin dynamical decoupling and observe high fidelity between excitation and echo phases. Rare-earth-doped nanoparticles are thus the only nano-material in which optically controlled spins with millisecond coherence lifetimes have been reported. These results open the way to providing quantum light-atom-spin interfaces with long storage time within hybrid architectures.
Abstract Nanoscale systems that coherently couple to light and possess spins offer key capabilities for quantum technologies. However, an outstanding challenge is to preserve properties, and especially optical and spin coherence lifetimes, at the nanoscale. Here, we report optically controlled nuclear spins with long coherence lifetimes ( T 2 ) in rare-earth-doped nanoparticles. We detect spins echoes and measure a spin coherence lifetime of 2.9 ± 0.3 ms at 5 K under an external magnetic field of 9 mT, a T 2 value comparable to those obtained in bulk rare-earth crystals. Moreover, we achieve spin T 2 extension using all-optical spin dynamical decoupling and observe high fidelity between excitation and echo phases. Rare-earth-doped nanoparticles are thus the only nano-material in which optically controlled spins with millisecond coherence lifetimes have been reported. These results open the way to providing quantum light-atom-spin interfaces with long storage time within hybrid architectures.
Rare earth ions are actively investigated as optically addressable spin systems for quantum technologies thanks to their long optical and spin coherence lifetimes. 171Yb3+, which has 1/2 electron and nuclear spins, recently raised interest for its simple hyperfine structure that moreover can result in long coherence lifetimes at zero magnetic field, an unusual property for paramagnetic rare earth ions. Here, we report on the optical inhomogeneous and homogeneous linewidths in 171Yb3+:Y2SiO5 (site 2) for different doping concentrations. While inhomogeneous linewidth is not correlated to 171Yb3+ concentration, the homogeneous one strongly decreases between 10 and 2 ppm doping level, reaching 255 Hz at 3 K. This is attributed to a slowing down of 171Yb3+ ground state spin flip-flops.