Quantum Model Cuts Parameters in Erbium-Doped GdVO4 Optical Spectrum

Researchers have developed a new model detailing how erbium ions interact within a gadolinium vanadate crystal, revealing that each erbium ion directly couples to its four nearest gadolinium neighbors. This cluster-based approach, detailed in a recent paper, moves beyond previous models by explicitly accounting for this immediate interaction and utilizing fewer parameters to describe the system’s complex optical spectrum. The work demonstrates that the model successfully captures the most important interactions within the Er:GdVO4 crystal, suggesting its potential for predicting microwave-to-optical transduction in future experiments. This improved understanding of rare-earth dopants builds on recent findings showing magnetically ordered crystals can provide a quiet environment for long optical coherence times. Measurements of the magnons in GdVO4 suggest that at zero applied field, the magnon frequency is 30.61 GHz, well within the microwave regime.…