Optical measurement of heteronuclear cross-relaxation interactions in Tm:YAG

TL;DR

This study uses optical techniques to analyze heteronuclear cross-relaxation in Tm:YAG, revealing how Tm-Al interactions affect hyperfine lifetimes and resonance structures.

Contribution

It introduces optical methods to characterize Tm-Al cross-relaxation interactions and models their effects on hyperfine lifetimes in Tm:YAG.

Findings

Resonance width of 10 kHz for Tm-Al interaction

Hyperfine lifetime reduced to 0.5 ms at resonance

Antihole structure indicates nearest neighbor interactions

Abstract

We investigate cross-relaxation interactions between Tm and Al in Tm:YAG using two optical methods: spectral holeburning and stimulated echoes. These interactions lead to a reduction in the hyperfine lifetime at magnetic fields that bring the Tm hyperfine transition into resonance with an Al transition. We develop models for measured echo decay curves and holeburning spectra near a resonance, which are used to show that the Tm-Al interaction has a resonance width of 10~kHz and reduces the hyperfine lifetime to 0.5 ms. The antihole structure is consistent with an interaction dominated by the Al nearest neighbors at 3.0 Angstroms, with some contribution from the next nearest neighbors at 3.6 Angstroms.