Spectroscopic detection of single Pr3+ ions on the 3H4−1D2 transition

Abstract

Rare earth ions in crystals exhibit narrow spectral features and hyperfine-split ground states with exceptionally long coherence times. These features make them ideal platforms for quantum information processing in the solid state. Recently, we reported on the first high-resolution spectroscopy of single ${\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}$ ions in yttrium orthosilicate nanocrystals via the ${}^{3}{{\rm{H}}}_{4}-{}^{3}{{\rm{P}}}_{0}$ transition at a wavelength of 488 nm. Here we show that individual praseodymium ions can also be detected on the more commonly studied ${}^{3}{{\rm{H}}}_{4}-{}^{1}{{\rm{D}}}_{2}$ transition at 606 nm. In addition, we present the first measurements of the second-order autocorrelation function, fluorescence lifetime, and emission spectra of single ions in this system as well as their polarization dependencies on both transitions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that by a proper choice of the crystallite, one can obtain narrower spectral lines and, thus, resolve the hyperfine levels of the excited state. We expect our results to make single-ion spectroscopy accessible to a larger scientific community.

Keywords

• single rare earth ion
• quantum information
• spin coherence
• 03.67.-a
• 42.50.Ex
• 42.50.-p