Slow decoherence and the radiative decay limit in rare-earth-doped crystals for coherent optical storage

摘要

We analyze the material requirements for recording, storage, and processing of optically encoded information using coherent optical transients in resonant solids. We introduce new figures of merit (FOM's) that explicitly account for the ratio between the rate of the decoherence and the rate of the spontaneous radiative decay. Highest FOM values are achieved when the decoherence rate approaches the fundamental limit set by spontaneous emission under the condition that the total transition oscillator strength is concentrated between a single pair of energy levels. We analyze FOM's of some of the most promising rare-earth-doped crystals at cryogenic temperatures.