We study transparent ceramics made of erbium doped yttria, as a candidate material for quantum storage of photons in the telecom wavelength. Samples with different heat processing conditions are compared. Two different species of Er³⁺ ions with drastically different dephasing properties are identified. In general, samples processed at lower temperature show narrower inhomogeneous and homogeneous linewidths. We also demonstrate both type I and type II waveguide in the material using a femtosecond laser, with propagation loss of 0.22 dB/mm.

© (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Jun Yang, Haitao Zhang, Stuart Gray, Thomas D. Ketcham, and Daniel A. Nolan, "Er3+ doped Y2O3 transparent ceramic for quantum memory applications," Proc. SPIE 10771, Quantum Communications and Quantum Imaging XVI, 1077109 (Presented at SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications: August 19, 2018; Published: 18 September 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2320693.