Crystal-Field Paschen-Back Effect on Ruby in Ultrahigh Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Zeeman spectra of the R lines of ruby (Cr${}^{3+}$: $\alpha$-Al${}_2$O${}_3$) were studied in ultrahigh magnetic fields up to 230 T by magneto-photoluminescence measurements. The observed Zeeman patterns exhibit nonlinear behaviors above 100 T, evidencing the breakdown of the previously reported Paschen-Back effect for $\mathbf{B}\perp c$ geometry. We adopted the crystal-field multiplet theory including the cubic crystal field (${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{cubic}}$), the trigonal crystal field (${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{trig}}$), the spin-orbit interaction (${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{SO}}$), and the Zeeman interaction (${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{Z}}$). It is found that the nonlinear splitting of the R lines is owing to the hybridization between the ${}^{2}E$ and ${}^2{T}_1$ states, which leads to the quantization of these Zeeman levels with the orbital angular momentum. Our results suggest that the exquisite energy balance among ${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{cubic}}$, ${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{trig}}$, ${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{SO}}$, and ${\mathcal{H}}_{\mathrm{Z}}$ realized in ruby offers a unique opportunity to observe the onset of the $crystal-field$ Paschen-Back effect toward the high-field extreme.

arXiv comment8 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Decoupling of hyperfine structure of Cs $D_1$ line in strong magnetic field studied by selective reflection from a nanocell
• Hyperfine Paschen-Back regime in alkali metal atoms: consistency of two theoretical considerations and experiment
• First polarimetric measurements and modeling of the Paschen-Back effect in CaH transitions

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