PERSISTENT SPECTRAL HOLE-BURNING OF PR-3+ IONS IN YTTRIA STABILIZED ZIRCONIA - A NEW HOLE-BURNING MATERIAL

Persistent spectral hole-burning has been observed in Pr3+ doped yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and used to measure the homogeneous linewidth (GAMMA-h). Holes can be burned only in the lowest crystal field component of the H-3(4) --> 1D2 transition of Pr3+ ions (6115 angstrom, inhomogeneous linewidth: approximately 100 cm-1) and observed below 25 K. Homogeneous linewidth of the transition is found to be 155 MHz at 4.2 K and to have a T1.20 +/- 0-1-dependence. Such a temperature dependence is quite similar to that usually observed in organic-molecules-doped polymers and coupling of electrons to the two level system (TLS) is suggested for the phase relaxation process.