Collective effects in $^{229}$Th-doped crystals

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates collective effects in $^{229}$Th-doped crystals, focusing on coherent pulse propagation, nuclear excitation signatures, and interference phenomena to support experimental efforts in direct nuclear transition driving.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of collective effects, pulse configurations, and interference in $^{229}$Th-doped crystals, aiding experimental approaches for nuclear transition control.

Findings

Narrow pulses simplify quadrupole splitting effects

Complex driving schemes reveal interference processes

Results support experimental efforts for direct nuclear transition driving

Abstract

Vacuum-ultraviolet-transparent crystals have been proposed as host lattice for the coherent driving of the unusually low-lying isomer excitation in $^{229}$Th for metrology and quantum optics applications. Here the possible collective effects occurring for the coherent pulse propagation in the crystal system are investigated theoretically. We consider the effect of possible doping sites, quantization axis orientation and pulse configurations on the scattered light intensity and signatures of nuclear excitation. Our results show that for narrow-pulse driving, the rather complicated quadrupole splitting of the level scheme is significantly simplified. Furthermore, we investigate complex driving schemes with a combination of pulsed fields and investigate the occurring interference process. Our theoretical results support experimental attempts for first direct driving of the nuclear transition with coherent light.