Optical dephasing, hyperfine structure, and hyperfine relaxation associated with the 580.8-nmF07−5D0transition of europium inEu3+:Y2O3

Abstract

We have employed spectral-hole-burning, coherent-transient, and optical-rf double-resonance techniques to measure various parameters associated with the 580.8-nm ${}_{}{}^7{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{F}_0^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ ${\mathrm{-}}^5$ ${\mathrm{D}}_0$ transition of ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{3+}$ doped into ${\mathrm{Y}}_2$ ${\mathrm{O}}_3$. In particular, we have measured the hyperfine splittings of the terminal levels (for both ${}_{}{}^{151}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Eu}$ and ${}_{}{}^{153}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Eu}$), an effective thermalization rate of the ground-state ${(}^7$ ${\mathrm{F}}_0$) hyperfine manifold over the temperature range of ≃4–15 K, and the homogeneous linewidth of the optical transition over the range of ≃14–35 K. Large ratios of inhomogeneous to homogeneous linewidth at elevated temperatures (${10}^3$ at 25 K) and long ground-state hyperfine thermalization times (>30 h at 4 K) make this an interesting crystal in the context of spectrally addressable optical memories.