Observation of electric quadrupole spin resonance of Ho$^{3+}$ impurity ions in synthetic forsterite

The anomalous dependence of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) line shape on the microwave power in the resonator has been found when studying the continuous-wave EPR spectra of impurity holmium ions in synthetic forsterite on an ELEXSYS E 580 EPR spectrometer. The power-threshold transition from the conventional lines being the derivatives of the spectral line contours to the spectral line contours themselves has been observed as the power increased. The properties of the anomalous EPR lines are qualitatively explained assuming that the resonance electric quadrupole transitions take place between the electron spin levels.