Efficient optical pumping of Zeeman spin levels in Nd3+:YVO4
Quantum Physics
2010-02-16 v1 Materials Science
Atomic Physics
Abstract
We demonstrate that Zeeman ground-state spin levels in Nd3+:YVO4 provides the possibility to create an efficient lambda-system for optical pumping experiments. The branching ratio R in the lambda-system is measured experimentally via absorption spectroscopy and is compared to a theoretical model. We show that R can be tuned by changing the orientation of the magnetic field. These results are applied to optical pumping experiments, where significant improvement is obtained compared to previous experiments in this system. The tunability of the branching ratio in combination with its good coherence properties and the high oscillator strength makes Nd3+:YVO4 an interesting candidate for various quantum information protocols.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1002.2917,
title = {Efficient optical pumping of Zeeman spin levels in Nd3+:YVO4},
author = {Mikael Afzelius and Matthias U. Staudt and Hugues de Riedmatten and Nicolas Gisin and Olivier Guillot-Noël and Philippe Goldner and Robert Marino and Pierre Porcher and Enrico Cavalli and Marco Bettinelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.2917},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
8 pages, 6 figures