Effects of fabrication methods on spin relaxation and crystallite quality in Tm-doped powders studied using spectral hole burning. Issue 1 (1st December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lutz, Thomas; Veissier, Lucile; Thiel, Charles W.; Woodburn, Philip J. T.; Cone, Rufus L.; Barclay, Paul E.; Tittel, Wolfgang
• Is Part Of: Science and technology of advanced materials. Volume 17:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 70
• Publication Date: 2016-12-01
• Subjects: Rare earth ion doped powders -- powder processing -- powder synthesis -- annealing -- spectral hole burning; Materials -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; 620.112
• DOI: 10.1080/14686996.2016.1148528
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-6996

Abstract

Abstract : High-quality rare-earth-ion (REI) doped materials are a prerequisite for many applications such as quantum memories, ultra-high-resolution optical spectrum analyzers and information processing. Compared to bulk materials, REI doped powders offer low-cost fabrication and a greater range of accessible material systems. Here we show that crystal properties, such as nuclear spin lifetime, are strongly affected by mechanical treatment, and that spectral hole burning can serve as a sensitive method to characterize the quality of REI doped powders. We focus on the specific case of thulium dopedY 3 Al 5 O 12 (Tm:YAG). Different methods for obtaining the powders are compared and the influence of annealing on the spectroscopic quality of powders is investigated on a few examples. We conclude that annealing can reverse some detrimental effects of powder fabrication and, in certain cases, the properties of the bulk material can be reached. Our results may be applicable to other impurities and other crystals, including color centers in nano-structured diamond. Graphical Abstract: