Homogeneous line broadening of the ruby R 1 line due to the superhyperfine interactions

Abstract

Homogeneous shapes of the R 1 line of a dilute ruby (0.0034 wt%) in magnetic fields (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 kOe) parallel to the c-axis at the liquid helium temperature are studied. Optical holes burnt in a line (+ 1 2 ) 4A 2→(- 1 2 ) Ē( 2E) are observed by using the Stark switching technique. The homogeneous line broadening due to the superhyperfine (shf) interactions between a Cr ion and its neighboring Al nuclei are numerically calculated and compared with the experimental results. It is found that the shf interactions dominate the homogeneous line broadening.