Spectral Hole Burning Spectroscopy and Optical Pumping in Nd3+:YVO4

We present spectral hole-burning measurements on the 879 nm, 4I9/2 →4F3/2 transition in Nd3+ :YVO4. We observe antiholes in the spectrum along with long lived spectral holes, which demonstrates optical pumping between the ground state Zeeman levels. The spectral holes are narrow homogeneous linewidth of 63 kHz at 2.1 K with a 300 mT applied magnetic field. We also perform preliminary spectral tailoring in this material by creating a 40 MHz wide transmission window in the inhomogeneous absorption. These results show the potential of the Zeeman levels in Nd doped materials to be used for spectral tailoring for quantum and classical information processing.