Light-atom interaction in an Er:YSO whispering gallery mode resonator
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Updated: Oct 22, 2026

Microwave Photonics Systems Based on Whispering-gallery-mode Resonators
Published on: August 5, 2013
Trevor Kling1, Mahdi Hosseini1,2
1Applied Physics Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
Abstract:
Rare-earth crystals are promising platforms for quantum information, with potentially long coherence times and telecom-compatible optical transitions. In this work, we investigate the optical properties of erbium atoms doped into a whispering gallery mode resonator produced by polishing a yttrium orthosilicate crystal. The multimode resonator demonstrates a bare quality factor of 2.56×105. We demonstrate mode interaction between atoms and the resonator, where an effective quality factor of 8.7×107 is induced by spectral hole burning. The Fano interference between the atomic (spectral holes) and optical modes, and the small free-spectral range achieved here, can enable the study of tuning-free linear and nonlinear collective interactions.
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