Persistant nonphotochemical hole-burning of a molecular vibrational mode in alkali halide lattices

Abstract

We report the first observation of persistent nonphotochemical hole-burning in the inhomogeneously broadened IR vibrational mode of a molecular impurity in a crystalline lattice. The system consists of ReO−4 molecules substitutionally doped into alkali halide crystals which were studied at liquid helium temperatures. GO2 and lead salt diode lasers have beers used to measure the hole growth and erasing dynamics at intensities far below the saturation intensity Is (≃1–3 W/cm2). © 1982 Optical Society of America