Tm${}^{3+}$:Y${}_3$Ga${}_5$O${}_{12}$ materials for spectrally multiplexed quantum memories

Abstract

We investigate the relevant spectroscopic properties of the 795 nm ${}^3$H${}_6$$\leftrightarrow$${}^3$H${}_4$ transition in 1% Tm${}^{3+}$:Y${}_3$Ga${}_5$O${}_{12}$ at temperatures as low as 1.2 K for optical quantum memories based on persistent spectral tailoring of narrow absorption features. Our measurements reveal that this transition has uniform coherence properties over a 56 GHz bandwidth, and a simple hyperfine structure split by $\pm$44 MHz/T with lifetimes of up to hours. Furthermore, we find a ${}^3$F${}_4$ population lifetime of 64 ms -- one of the longest lifetimes observed for an electronic level in a solid --, and an exceptionally long coherence lifetime of 490 $\mu$s -- the longest ever observed for optical transitions of Tm${}^{3+}$ ions in a crystal. Our results suggest that this material allows realizing broadband quantum memories that enable spectrally multiplexed quantum repeaters.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Quantum Storage of Photonic Entanglement in a Crystal
• Cavity-enhanced storage in an optical spin-wave memory

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Optical decoherence studies of Tm${}^{3+}$:Y${}_3$Ga${}_5$O${}_{12}$
• Measurement of the Thulium Ion Spin Hamiltonian Within a Yttrium Gallium Garnet Host Crystal