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Main Authors: Paul, Pralay, Abeywickrama, Kusal M., Geng, Nisha, Parashar, Mritunjaya, Brown, Levi, Sharma, Mohin, Saini, Darshpreet Kaur, Artola, Melissa Ayala, Byers, Todd A., Rout, Bibhudutta, Ju, Yiwei, Pan, Xiaoqing, Goswami, Sumit, Purayil, Sreehari Puthan, Kerr, Casey, Biswas, Dhiman, Summers, Ben, Wang, Bin, Hahn, Horst, Javadi, Alisa, Venkatesan, T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.25234
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author Paul, Pralay
Abeywickrama, Kusal M.
Geng, Nisha
Parashar, Mritunjaya
Brown, Levi
Sharma, Mohin
Saini, Darshpreet Kaur
Artola, Melissa Ayala
Byers, Todd A.
Rout, Bibhudutta
Ju, Yiwei
Pan, Xiaoqing
Goswami, Sumit
Purayil, Sreehari Puthan
Kerr, Casey
Biswas, Dhiman
Summers, Ben
Wang, Bin
Hahn, Horst
Javadi, Alisa
Venkatesan, T.
author_facet Paul, Pralay
Abeywickrama, Kusal M.
Geng, Nisha
Parashar, Mritunjaya
Brown, Levi
Sharma, Mohin
Saini, Darshpreet Kaur
Artola, Melissa Ayala
Byers, Todd A.
Rout, Bibhudutta
Ju, Yiwei
Pan, Xiaoqing
Goswami, Sumit
Purayil, Sreehari Puthan
Kerr, Casey
Biswas, Dhiman
Summers, Ben
Wang, Bin
Hahn, Horst
Javadi, Alisa
Venkatesan, T.
contents In highly purified host, the coherence of quantum emitters is ultimately limited by hyperfine interactions between the emitter and lattice nuclei possessing non-zero nuclear magnetic moments. This limitation can only be mitigated through isotopic purification. In this work, we investigate CeO2 as a host composed entirely of nuclei with zero nuclear moment. High-quality CeO2 thin films were grown by PLD and doped with Tm and Er ions. Structural characterization using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and ion channeling confirms single-crystalline, atomically smooth films with dopants substitutionally incorporated at Ce lattice sites. Photoluminescence lifetime measurements show significantly longer lifetimes for Er-doped CeO2 (2.9 - 5.3 ms) compared with Tm-doped films (14 - 68 μs). Moreover, the Er-doped PLD films exhibit longer lifetimes at ~1% dopant concentration than previously reported for MBE-grown films. Density functional theory calculations reveal a substantial overlap between unoccupied O 2p and Tm 4f states near the valence band maximum, whereas Er 4f states remain well isolated. This electronic interaction likely introduces non-radiative recombination pathways in Tm-doped CeO2, explaining the reduced lifetimes. These findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate dopant-host combinations and optimized growth conditions to minimize non-radiative channels for quantum applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_25234
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Epitaxial CeO2 Films as a Host for Quantum Applications
Paul, Pralay
Abeywickrama, Kusal M.
Geng, Nisha
Parashar, Mritunjaya
Brown, Levi
Sharma, Mohin
Saini, Darshpreet Kaur
Artola, Melissa Ayala
Byers, Todd A.
Rout, Bibhudutta
Ju, Yiwei
Pan, Xiaoqing
Goswami, Sumit
Purayil, Sreehari Puthan
Kerr, Casey
Biswas, Dhiman
Summers, Ben
Wang, Bin
Hahn, Horst
Javadi, Alisa
Venkatesan, T.
Quantum Physics
Materials Science
In highly purified host, the coherence of quantum emitters is ultimately limited by hyperfine interactions between the emitter and lattice nuclei possessing non-zero nuclear magnetic moments. This limitation can only be mitigated through isotopic purification. In this work, we investigate CeO2 as a host composed entirely of nuclei with zero nuclear moment. High-quality CeO2 thin films were grown by PLD and doped with Tm and Er ions. Structural characterization using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and ion channeling confirms single-crystalline, atomically smooth films with dopants substitutionally incorporated at Ce lattice sites. Photoluminescence lifetime measurements show significantly longer lifetimes for Er-doped CeO2 (2.9 - 5.3 ms) compared with Tm-doped films (14 - 68 μs). Moreover, the Er-doped PLD films exhibit longer lifetimes at ~1% dopant concentration than previously reported for MBE-grown films. Density functional theory calculations reveal a substantial overlap between unoccupied O 2p and Tm 4f states near the valence band maximum, whereas Er 4f states remain well isolated. This electronic interaction likely introduces non-radiative recombination pathways in Tm-doped CeO2, explaining the reduced lifetimes. These findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate dopant-host combinations and optimized growth conditions to minimize non-radiative channels for quantum applications.
title Epitaxial CeO2 Films as a Host for Quantum Applications
topic Quantum Physics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.25234