title: Effects of fabrication methods on spin relaxation and crystallite quality in Tm-doped Y3AI5O12powders studied using spectral hole burning.
abstract: High-quality rare-earth-ion (REI) doped materials are a prerequisite for many applications such as quantum memories, ultra-high-resolution optical spectrum analyzers and information processing. Compared to bulk materials, REI doped powders offer low-cost fabrication and a greater range of accessible material systems. Here we show that crystal properties, such as nuclear spin lifetime, are strongly affected by mechanical treatment, and that spectral hole burning can serve as a sensitive method to characterize the quality of REI doped powders. We focus on the specific case of thulium doped Y3AI5O12(Tm:YAG). Different methods for obtaining the powders are compared and the influence of annealing on the spectroscopic quality of powders is investigated on a few examples. We conclude that annealing can reverse some detrimental effects of powder fabrication and, in certain cases, the properties of the bulk material can be reached. Our results may be applicable to other impurities and other crystals, including color centers in nano-structured diamond.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary , Calgary Alberta , T2N 1N4 Canada .
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary , Calgary Alberta , T2N 1N4 Canada .
authors.forename: Lucile
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Veissier
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Montana State University , Bozeman , MT , 59717 USA .
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Thiel
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Montana State University , Bozeman , MT , 59717 USA .
authors.forename: Philip J T
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Woodburn
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Montana State University , Bozeman , MT , 59717 USA .
authors.forename: Rufus L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Cone
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary , Calgary Alberta , T2N 1N4 Canada .
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Barclay
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary , Calgary Alberta , T2N 1N4 Canada .
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tittel
keywords: Rare earth ion doped powders; annealing; powder processing; powder synthesis; spectral hole burning