Abstract

Optical hole burning has been observed in the 5941-Å transition of Pr³⁺ in a charge-compensated tetragonal site of CaF₂. The Pr³⁺ ground state is doubly degenerate and shows a large first-order hyperfine splitting, which is clearly resolved because of the very narrow inhomogeneous linewidth of 650 MHz. The hole burning involves a new mechanism, in which optically induced spin flips of neighboring nuclei (here ¹⁹F) shift the optical transition frequency outside its homogeneous linewidth. This mechanism was confirmed by optical rf double resonance.

© 1981 Optical Society of America

Persistent spectral hole burning induced by ion motion in CaF₂:Pr³⁺:D⁻ and SrF₂:Pr³⁺:D⁻ crystals

R. J. Reeves and R. M. Macfarlane
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9(5) 763-767 (1992)

Persistent spectral hole burning due to deuteron tunneling in SrF₂:Pr³⁺:D⁻

R. M. Macfarlane, R. J. Reeves, and G. D. Jones
Opt. Lett. 12(9) 660-662 (1987)

Measurement of nuclear and electronic Zeeman effects using optical hole-burning spectroscopy

R. M. Macfarlane and R. M. Shelby
Opt. Lett. 6(2) 96-98 (1981)

Measurement of the hyperfine structure of Pr^3::YAG by quantum-beat free-induction decay, hole burning, and optically detected nuclear quadrupole resonance

R. M. Shelby, A. C. Tropper, R. T. Harley, and R. M. Macfarlane
Opt. Lett. 8(6) 304-306 (1983)

Photon-gated spectral hole burning in Pr³⁺:YAG

R. M. Macfarlane and G. Wittmann
Opt. Lett. 21(16) 1289-1291 (1996)