Narrow Optical Line Widths in Erbium Implanted in TiO2

Christopher M. Phenicie, Paul Stevenson, Sacha Welinski, Brendon C. Rose, Abraham T. Asfaw, Robert J. Cava, Stephen A. Lyon, Nathalie P. De Leon, Jeff D. Thompson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Atomic and atomlike defects in the solid state are widely explored for quantum computers, networks, and sensors. Rare earth ions are an attractive class of atomic defects that feature narrow spin and optical transitions that are isolated from the host crystal, allowing incorporation into a wide range of materials. However, the realization of long electronic spin coherence times is hampered by magnetic noise from abundant nuclear spins in the most widely studied host crystals. Here, we demonstrate that Er3+ ions can be introduced via ion implantation into TiO2, a host crystal that has not been studied extensively for rare earth ions and has a low natural abundance of nuclear spins. We observe efficient incorporation of the implanted Er3+ into the Ti4+ site (>50% yield) and measure narrow inhomogeneous spin and optical line widths (20 and 460 MHz, respectively) that are comparable to bulk-doped crystalline hosts for Er3+. This work demonstrates that ion implantation is a viable path to studying rare earth ions in new hosts and is a significant step toward realizing individually addressed rare earth ions with long spin coherence times for quantum technologies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)8928-8933
Number of pages6
JournalNano Letters
Volume19
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 11 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemistry
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Bioengineering
  • General Materials Science

Keywords

  • Rare earth ions
  • electron spin resonance
  • erbium
  • ion implantation
  • optical spectroscopy
  • quantum optics

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