Single-LED-pumped, room-temperature, solid-state maser
Abstract
Through their ability to achieve cryogenic levels of noise performance while operating at room temperature, optically-pumped, solid-state (OPSS) masers show great promise as quantum sensors, oscillators, and amplifiers. We here demonstrate maser oscillation in a microwave cavity containing a crystal of pentacene-doped para-terphenyl (ptc:ptp) pumped by a single, chip-scale LED. Here, unlike previous work, the size of the pump source does not dominate the size of the maser system as a whole. This miniaturization is achieved through invasive optical pumping in the form of a waveguide, the tip of which is embedded into the maser crystal. Using experimental measurements combined with microwave and optical simulations, we find that our approach offers at least a factor-of-2 enhancement in cooperativity over end-on optical excitation. We use our simulations to define a figure of merit for maser pumping efficiency, and conclude that there remains significant headroom to improve the performance of ptc:ptp masers through improved optical design.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.20611,
title = {Single-LED-pumped, room-temperature, solid-state maser},
author = {Michael Newns and Shirley Xu and Mingyang Liu and Zike Cheng and Yifan Yu and Ziqiu Huang and Max Attwood and Mark Oxborrow},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.20611},
year = {2026}
}