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arXiv:0710.0609 · Physical Review A

Numerical investigation of the quantum fluctuations of optical fields transmitted through an atomic medium

A. Lezama, Paulo Valente, H. Failache, M. Martinelli, P. Nussenzveig

Published Jan 11, 2008• 25 citations
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Abstract

We have numerically solved the Heisenberg-Langevin equations describing the propagation of quantized fields through an optically thick sample of atoms. Two orthogonal polarization components are considered for the field, and the complete Zeeman sublevel structure of the atomic transition is taken into account. Quantum fluctuations of atomic operators are included through appropriate Langevin forces. We have considered an incident field in a linearly polarized coherent state (driving field) and vacuum in the perpendicular polarization and calculated the noise spectra of the amplitude and phase quadratures of the output field for two orthogonal polarizations. We analyze different configurations depending on the total angular momentum of the ground and excited atomic states. We examine the generation of squeezing for the driving-field polarization component and vacuum squeezing of the orthogonal polarization. Entanglement of orthogonally polarized modes is predicted. Noise spectral features specific to (Zeeman) multilevel configurations are identified.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.77.013806

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We have numerically solved the Heisenberg-Langevin equations describing the propagation of quantized fields through an optically thick sample of atoms. Two orthogonal polarization components are considered for the field, and the complete Zeeman sublevel structure of the atomic transition is taken into account. Quantum fluctuations of atomic operators are included through appropriate Langevin forces. We have considered an incident field in a linearly polarized coherent state (driving field) and vacuum in the perpendicular polarization and calculated the noise spectra of the amplitude and phase quadratures of the output field for two orthogonal polarizations. We analyze different configurations depending on the total angular momentum of the ground and excited atomic states. We examine the generation of squeezing for the driving-field polarization component and vacuum squeezing of the orthogonal polarization. Entanglement of orthogonally polarized modes is predicted. Noise spectral features specific to (Zeeman) multilevel configurations are identified.
Summary form only given. We suggest a promising way to obtain the squeezing of vacuum fluctuations. We study the interaction of linearly polarized light with atoms in a double-/spl Lambda/ configuration, where the two lower levels are Zeeman sublevels of the atomic ground state and the upper levels are the hyperfine components of the atomic excited state. In such systems, Kerr nonlinearity associated with the ac-Stark effect causes self-rotation of the elliptical polarization. At the same time when the linearly polarized light traverses such a medium, a squeezed vacuum is produced in the orthogonal polarization.
The complex internal atomic structure involved in radiative transitions has an effect on the spectrum of fluctuations (noise) of the transmitted light. A degenerate transition has different properties in this respect than a pure two-level transition. We investigate these variations by studying a certain transition between two degenerate atomic levels for different choices of the polarization state of the driving laser. For circular polarization, corresponding to the textbook two-level-atom case, the optical spectrum shows the characteristic Mollow triplet for strong laser drive, while the corresponding noise spectrum exhibits squeezing in some frequency ranges. For a linearly polarized drive, corresponding to the case of a multilevel system, additional features appear in both optical and noise spectra. These differences are more pronounced in the regime of a weakly driven transition: whereas the two-level case essentially exhibits elastic scattering, the multilevel case has extra noise terms related to spontaneous Raman transitions. We also discuss the possibility to experimentally observe these predicted differences for the commonly encountered case where the laser drive has excess noise in its phase quadrature.
We consider the interaction between a classical time-varying electric field and the atomic electrical dipole moment operator of a finite state atom and calculate approximately the mixed state evolution of the atom with such an interaction Hamiltonian up to quadratic orders in the external classical electric field using Schrodinger’s equation for mixed state evolution. From this approximate expression for the state evolution, we evaluate the average atomic electric dipole moment as a linear-quadratic function of the electric field. Later on, we also take into account Brownian motion bath noise that couples to the atomic dynamics, so that the Schrodinger equation dynamics gets modified to the Lindblad dynamics of an open quantum system, i.e., the master equation. From the average atomic dipole moment, we obtain an expression for the average polarization field of atoms constituting the medium through which the classical electromagnetic wave propagates. This average polarization is a linear-quadratic causal functional of the electric field. The resulting Maxwell equations for wave propagation, taking into account this polarization current density, thus acquire a quadratic nonlinearity which can be used to explain higher harmonic frequencies at the output of an optical fiber when the input is excited by the electric field coming from a monochromatic laser. We are then also able to calculate the mean square fluctuations in the polarization field using the evolving atomic state, and hence the electric field propagating through the medium of atoms acquires quantum fluctuations which can be used to explain time-varying random shifts in the spectral lines. As mentioned above, we include in this article an extension of this problem to the case when there is white Gaussian noise corrupting the state evolution dynamics of the atom and also the case when there is a pairwise interaction between the spin dipoles of atoms at two different locations. In the former case, we derive an approximate formula for the polarization field as well as its temporal statistical correlations, and we show how this computation can be extended to the latter case too. When there is a pairwise interaction between the atomic spins, we use a version of the approximate quantum Boltzmann equation to calculate the first and second order marginals of the atomic states, which is then used to compute the average polarization as well as its spatio-temporal correlations. Temporal correlations using second marginals of the atomic states cannot be computed using classical probabilistic methods owing to Heisenberg uncertainty, so we propose a sequential measurement-based strategy involving computation of the joint probabilities of the atomic spin components at two different times by first measuring one component of the spin, allowing for state collapse, and then following it up with nonlinear time evolution from the collapsed two-particle state using the quantum Boltzmann equation, followed further by measurement of another component of the spin at the second time.
Quantum theoretical treatment of coherent forward scattering of light in a polarized atomic ensemble with an arbitrary angular momentum is developed. We consider coherent forward scattering of a weak radiation field interacting with a realistic multilevel atomic transition. Based on the concept of an effective Hamiltonian and on the Heisenberg formalism, we discuss the coupled dynamics of the quantum fluctuations of the polarization Stokes components of propagating light and of the collective spin fluctuations of the scattering atoms. We show that in the process of coherent forward scattering, this dynamics can be described in terms of a polariton-type spin wave created in the atomic sample. Our work presents a general example of an entangling process in the system of collective quantum states of light and atomic angular momenta, previously considered only for the case of spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ atoms. We use the developed general formalism to test the applicability of the spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ approximation for modeling the quantum nondemolishing measurement of atoms with a higher angular momentum.
A brief review of theoretical studies of the quantum state of polarization of light exhibiting the level of fluctuations in at least one of the Stokes parameters which is below the quantum noise limit is presented. Two approaches to generation of polarization-squeezed state of light are analyzed in detail: by propagating coherent radiation in a cubic nonlinear medium and by mixing radiation of two orthogonally polarized quadrature-squeezed modes. The degree of polarization of light is discussed. Other areas of quantum polarization optics, in particular, entanglement of quantum Stokes parameters and quantum polarization tomography, are also discussed.