Quadratic Zeeman spectral diffusion of thulium ion population in an yttrium gallium garnet crystal

The creation of well-understood structures using spectral hole burning is an important task in the use of technologies based on rare-earth ion-doped crystals. We apply a series of different techniques to model and improve the frequency dependent population change in the atomic level structure of thulium yttrium gallium garnet (Tm:YGG). In...

Thulium Doped Garnets for Quantum Repeaters and Optical Quantum Memory

Quantum memories will prove to be an invaluable tool for distributing entangled quantum states over distance. Many novel materials for this purpose are being investigated and key among them are rare earth ion doped crystals. These materials possess a great number of potential combinations of host crystal and ion species for further study, some...

A long-lived spectrally multiplexed solid-state optical quantum memory for high-rate quantum repeaters

Long optical storage times are an essential requirement to establish high-rate entanglement distribution over large distances using memory-based quantum repeaters. Rare earth ion-doped crystals are arguably well-suited candidates for building such quantum memories. Toward this end, we investigate the 795.32 nm ³H₆ ↔ <sup...

Long-Lived Solid-State Optical Memory for High-Rate Quantum Repeaters

We argue that long optical storage times are required to establish entanglement at high rates over large distances using memory-based quantum repeaters. Triggered by this conclusion, we investigate the 795.325 nm3 H6↔H34 transition of Tm:Y3Ga5O12 (Tm:YGG). Most importantly, we find that the optical coherence time can reach 1.1 ms, and, using...

Measurement of the thulium ion spin Hamiltonian in an yttrium gallium garnet host crystal

We characterize the magnetic properties for thulium ion energy levels in the (Tm:YGG) lattice with the goal to improve decoherence and reduce linewidth broadening caused by local host spins and crystal imperfections. More precisely, we measure hyperfine tensors for the lowest level of and excited states using a combination of spectral hole...

Entanglement and nonlocality between disparate solid-state quantum memories mediated by photons

Entangling quantum systems with different characteristics through the exchange of photons is a prerequisite for building future quantum networks. Proving the presence of entanglement between quantum memories for light working at different wavelengths furthers this goal. Here, we report on a series of experiments with a thulium-doped crystal,...

Improved light-matter interaction for storage of quantum states of light in a thulium-doped crystal cavity

We design and implement an atomic frequency comb quantum memory for 793-nm wavelength photons using a monolithic cavity based on a thulium- (Tm-) doped Y3Al5O12 crystal. Approximate impedance matching results in the absorption of 90% of input photons and a memory efficiency of (27.5±2.7)% over a 500-MHz bandwidth. The cavity enhancement leads...