Purcell Enhancement and Suppression in Laser Cooling of Yb$^{3+}$:YLF Nanocrystals in a Fabry-P\'erot Microcavity

Abstract

We investigate the improvement of anti-Stokes laser cooling of a Yb$^{3+}$:YLF nanocrystal in a Fabry-P\'erot microcavity via the Purcell effect. Our analysis accounts for both the enhancement of emission lines resonant with the cavity transmission and the suppression of off-resonance emissions. Using a quantum-mechanical framework, we modeled the Yb$^{3+}$ ions in a YLiF$_4$ matrix and the laser system to calculate the minimum achievable temperature and cooling efficiency, incorporating cavity-induced modifications to experimental data on emission cross section. Our results indicate that for temperatures below 100~K, the cooling efficiency ($\eta_c$) is consistently enhanced, and the minimum achievable temperature is reduced comfortably below the current limits. We also show how the inclusion of Purcell inhibition effects can lead to improvements in the cooling efficiency ranging from 25\% to 65\%, with respect to the case when only Purcell enhancement is considered.