Abstract

The nature of inhomogeneous broadening in rare earth systems plays an important role in the dynamical optical properties of ions in crystals. For this reason much of the work on the nature of the inhomogeneous broadening in rare earth doped systems has concentrated on the investigation of ion-ion interactions such as spectral transfer and up conversion processes.^1,3 Variations in homogeneous optical dephasing times across the inhomogeneous optical line have also been reported.⁴ These studies concentrate on the variations of collective effects of ion- ion interactions at different positions in the inhomogeneous optical line in relatively heavily doped rare earth systems. We report variations in optically detected NQR (ODNQR) linewidths and shifts of Pr³⁺ hyperfme transitions in the optical ground state as a function of position in the inhomogeneous optical line and for satellite transitions of the ¹D₂-³H₄ transition in lightly doped (0.5 at. %) Pr³⁺:LaF₃.

© 1991 Optical Society of America