Inhomogeneous response of an ion ensemble from mechanical stress

S. Zhang, N. Galland, N. Lucic, R. Letargat, A. Ferrier, P. Goldner, B. Fang, Y. Le Coq and S. Seidelin

Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 013306 – Published 12 March 2020

Material strain has recently received growing attention as a complementary resource to control the energy levels of quantum emitters embedded inside a solid-state environment. Some rare-earth ion dopants provide an optical transition which simultaneously has a narrow linewidth and is highly sensitive to strain. We investigate experimentally how the spectral profile is modified due to external mechanical strain.