Thulium doped crystals for quantum information storage

Optically driving nuclear spin waves in a Tm:YAG crystal, we experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of a three-level Λ system in this material, which is a foundation step in the prospect of quantum memory investigations. Varying the spin state splitting with an external magnetic field, we show that the nuclear spin coherence lifetime remains close to 350 μ s over a wide range of variation of this splitting. Finally, we demonstrate fast coherent population transfer between the spin states.