Initial Experiments Concerning Quantum Information Processing in Rare-Earth-Ion Doped Crystals

Hole-burning techniques for isolation and study of individual hyperfine transitions in inhomogeneously broadened solids demonstrated inPr3+:Y2Nilsson1, Rippe2, Kröll3 et al. 2004Phys. Rev. B1936830View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…23 The work presented here is part of a project aimed at preparing rare-earth ions in inorganic crystals for use as quantum computer hardware. 20,24,25 As the idea is to use hy-perfine levels in the optical ground state as qubit states, the ability to access and manipulate the ions on specific hyperfine transitions, as is demonstrated in the present work, is of great importance. Related results, demonstrating robust qubit manipulation and qubit distillation in Pr 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 , will be presented separately.…”

“…20, a spectral interval is first completely emptied of absorbers using repeated pulses chirped over the frequency interval. The frequency is then shifted by an amount equal to one of the ground state hyperfine level separations ␦ 1 g and absorbers within a narrow frequency interval are excited.…”

“…These atoms can then be used for spectroscopic studies, as below, or for experiments within quantum optics or quantum information processing. 20,21,26 A typical burn sequence will start with a series of pulses that, to the extent possible, removes subsets of atoms that absorb on other hyperfine transitions than those selected from the spectral region that will be used. Then a pit (pits) are burned around the frequency (frequencies) where the selected subset of atoms are to absorb on specific transitions.…”

“…2,4,6,9,[15][16][17] Recently, rare-earth ion-doped materials have been used in quantum optical experiments, such as in demonstrations of slow light based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), 18 for the demonstration of single-photon self-interference 19 and in experiments aimed at using the dopant ions as quantum computer hardware. 20,21 Several rare-earth ion-doped materials exhibit long-lived hyperfine or Zeeman levels and in the applications mentioned above the spin transitions and the properties of the hyperfine levels are highly relevant. The lifetime of these hyperfine levels is often many orders of magnitude longer than the optical lifetime, e.g., a few minutes in Pr 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 (Ref.…”

Hyperfine structure and homogeneous broadening inPr3+:KY(WO4)2

“…Rare-earth-ion-doped crystals are used in experiments within the areas of optical data storage and processing, [1][2][3][4][5][6] quantum information and computing, [7][8][9] as well as for frequency standards. 10,11 The spectroscopic properties of the materials determine their usefulness for the various applications and it is of interest to expand the range of available materials and to search for materials with properties even more suited for particular applications.…”