Optical Transmission Enhancement of Ionic Crystals via Superionic Fluoride Transfer: Growing VUV-Transparent Radioactive Crystals
| Autor: | Beeks, Kjeld, Sikorsky, Tomas, Schaden, Fabian, Pressler, Martin, Schneider, Felix, Koch, Björn N., Pronebner, Thomas, Werban, David, Hosseini, Niyusha, Kazakov, Georgy, Welch, Jan, Sterba, Johannes H., Kraus, Florian, Schumm, Thorsten |
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| Rok vydání: | 2023 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevB.109.094111 |
| Popis: | The 8 eV first nuclear excited state in $^{229}$Th is a candidate for implementing an nuclear clock. Doping $^{229}$Th into ionic crystals such as CaF$_2$ is expected to suppress non-radiative decay, enabling nuclear spectroscopy and the realization of a solid-state optical clock. Yet, the inherent radioactivity of $^{229}$Th prohibits the growth of high-quality single crystals with high $^{229}$Th concentration; radiolysis causes fluoride loss, increasing absorption at 8 eV. We overcome this roadblock by annealing $^{229}$Th doped CaF$_2$ at 1250$\unicode{x2103}$ in CF$_4$. The technique presented here allows to adjust the fluoride content without crystal melting, preserving its single-crystal structure. Superionic state annealing ensures rapid fluoride distribution, creating fully transparent and radiation-hard crystals. This approach enables control over the charge state of dopants which can be used in deep UV optics, laser crystals, scintillators, and nuclear clocks. Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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