Calculations of rare earth hyperfine structures and application to quantum information

Abstract Hyperfine structures are a key element in the rare earth based schemes proposed for quantum information. Experimental determination of hyperfine level energies is often difficult, especially under a magnetic field. However, such a field is very useful to tune the hyperfine structures in order to obtain efficient quantum information systems. The calculation of these structures from crystal field wavefunctions can therefore be of great interest. In this paper, calculated hyperfine levels of Pr 3+ in LiYF 4 and Tm 3+ in YAG are compared with experimental data. An analysis of the results is also presented.