Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Rare-Earth-Doped Materials With Application To Optical Signal Processing, Quantum Information Science, And Medical Imaging Technology, R L. Cone, C W. Thiel, Y Sun, Thomas Böttger, R M. Macfarlane

Physics and Astronomy

Unique spectroscopic properties of isolated rare earth ions in solids offer optical linewidths rivaling those of trapped single atoms and enable a variety of recent applications. We design rare-earth-doped crystals, ceramics, and fibers with persistent or transient “spectral hole” recording properties for applications including high-bandwidth optical signal processing where light and our solids replace the high-bandwidth portion of the electronics; quantum cryptography and information science including the goal of storage and recall of single photons; and medical imaging technology for the 700-900 nm therapeutic window. Ease of optically manipulating rare-earth ions in solids enables capturing complex spectral information in 105 …