Biphoton spectroscopy of YAG:Er3+ crystal

The absorption spectrum of Er (3+) ions in YAG crystal in the range from 645 nm to 655 nm was measured with the resolution of 0.01 nm using the frequency-anticorrelated broadband photon pairs (biphotons) generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The spectrum of the sample was measured by counting the coincidences when the impurity crystal was placed in front of the signal photon detector, whilst the wavelength of the idler photons was resolved by a monochromator which was placed in front of another photon detector. The results are in agreement with those obtained by the usual intensity measurements with a classical light source and a monochromator. It was shown experimentally that the biphoton spectroscopy, unlike the usual single photon spectroscopy, allows one to obtain the spectroscopic information in the presence of an external noise such as background thermal radiation.