1] Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany [2] Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), D-91058 Erlangen, Germany.
1] Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland [2] Present address: OSRAM GmbH, Berliner Allee 65, 86153 Augsburg, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2014 Apr 11;5:3627. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4627.
The narrow optical transitions and long spin coherence times of rare earth ions in crystals make them desirable for a number of applications ranging from solid-state spectroscopy and laser physics to quantum information processing. However, investigations of these features have not been possible at the single-ion level. Here we show that the combination of cryogenic high-resolution laser spectroscopy with optical microscopy allows one to spectrally select individual praseodymium ions in yttrium orthosilicate. Furthermore, this spectral selectivity makes it possible to resolve neighbouring ions with a spatial precision of the order of 10 nm. In addition to elaborating on the essential experimental steps for achieving this long-sought goal, we demonstrate state preparation and read out of the three ground-state hyperfine levels, which are known to have lifetimes of the order of hundred seconds.
晶体中稀土离子的窄光学跃迁和长自旋相干时间使它们在从固态光谱学和激光物理到量子信息处理等多个领域具有应用价值。然而，这些特性的研究在单离子水平上是不可能的。在这里，我们展示了低温高分辨率激光光谱学与光学显微镜的结合，使人们能够在硅酸钇中对单个镨离子进行光谱选择。此外，这种光谱选择性使得能够以 10nm 左右的空间精度分辨相邻的离子。除了详细阐述实现这一长期目标的基本实验步骤外，我们还演示了三个基态超精细能级的状态制备和读出，这些能级的寿命已知在百秒量级。
