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arXiv:0805.1697

Detecting of photons in optical fields of complicated spatial structure

В. В. Климов, Daniel Bloch, M. Ducloy, J. R. Rios Leite

Published May 12, 2008• 1 citation
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Abstract

We show that a photon detector, sensitive to the gradients of electromagnetic fields, or to magnetic fields, should be a useful tool to characterize the quantum properties of spatially-dependent optical fields. We discuss the excitation of an atom on a magnetic dipole or electric quadrupole transitions with the spiral photons of a Laguerre-Gauss (LG) or Bessel beams. We show that these beams are not true hollow beams, due to the presence of magnetic fields and gradients of electric fields on beam axis. This approach paves the way to an analysis at the quantum level of the spatial structure and angular momentum properties of singular light beams.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0805.1697

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We show that a photon detector, sensitive to the gradients of electromagnetic fields, or to magnetic fields, should be a useful tool to characterize the quantum properties of spatially-dependent optical fields. We discuss the excitation of an atom on a magnetic dipole or electric quadrupole transitions with the spiral photons of a Laguerre-Gauss (LG) or Bessel beams. We show that these beams are not true hollow beams, due to the presence of magnetic fields and gradients of electric fields on beam axis. This approach paves the way to an analysis at the quantum level of the spatial structure and angular momentum properties of singular light beams.
We show that a new type of photon detector, sensitive to the gradients of electromagnetic fields, should be a useful tool to characterize the quantum properties of spatially-dependent optical fields. As a simple detector of such a kind, we propose using magnetic dipole or electric quadrupole transitions in atoms or molecules and apply it to the detection of spiral photons in Laguerre-Gauss (LG) beams. We show that LG beams are not true hollow beams, due to the presence of magnetic fields and gradients of electric fields on beam axis. This approach paves the way to an analysis at the quantum level of the spatial structure and angular momentum properties of singular light beams.
We show that a photon detector, sensitive to the magnetic field or to the gradient of electric field, can help to characterize the quantum properties of spatially-dependent optical fields. We discuss the excitation of an atom through magnetic dipole or electric quadrupole transitions with the photons of a Bessel beam or a Laguerre-Gauss (LG) beams. These spiral beams are shown to be not true hollow beams, due to the presence of magnetic fields and gradients of electric fields on beam axis. This approach paves the way to an analysis at the quantum level of the propagating light beams having a complicated spatial structure.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Structured light has seen many applications in the fields of telecommunications, optical microscopy, and quantum information processing, however, few works exist that explore the interactions of structured light with atoms. In this thesis, we seek to explore these interactions further, both theoretically and experimentally. Of particular interest is the interaction between an atom and a Laguerre-Gauss beam of topological charge l = 1. Such a beam is easily constructed in a lab setting, and also carries an additional unit of orbital angular momentum that has been shown to couple with atomic transitions. Theoretically, we derive a framework upon which to describe atomic transitions due structured light. We find that tailoring light’s structure will have a direct influence on the strength of quadrupole transitions in atoms. A theoretical analysis of the effects of an atom situated in a magnetic field interacting with a Laguerre-Gauss beam of topological charge l = 1 was conducted. It was found that atoms placed in a region of zero intensity, such as the beam centre, can undergo quadrupole transitions – in contrast to dipole transitions that rely on the field intensity. We go on to show the differences between this beam and a gaussian beam, and find that the former can cause transitions between magnetic sub-levels that are typically considered forbidden in quadrupole spectroscopy under certain conditions. We explain this through the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Experimentally, we chose to use a potassium vapour cell as our medium, as the linewidth of its quadrupole transition was relatively large, and could be simply modelled as a three-level system to easily understand its dynamics. We performed an experiment where we indirectly measured a 4 2S1/2 → 3 2Dj quadrupole transition for j = 3/2, 5/2, induced by a custom-built external cavity diode laser operating at ∼ 464.3 nm. The 4 2S1/2 → 3 2Dj transition was measured by monitoring the fluorescence due to a dipole decay 4 2Pj 0 → 4 2S1/2 during the decay cascade from 3 2Dj → 4 2Pj 0 → 4 2S1/2 , where j 0 = 1/2, 3/2. We then used our theoretical framework to fit the sum of two gaussian peaks to our measured fluorescence spectrum, and find an excellent agreement with our data.
We propose a scheme to distinguish the orbital angular momentum state of the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam based on the electromagnetically induced transparency modulated by a microwave field in atomic ensembles. We show that the transverse phase variation of a probe beam with the LG mode can be mapped into the spatial intensity distribution due to the change of atomic coherence caused by the microwave. The proposal may provide a useful tool for studying higher-dimensional quantum information based on atomic ensembles.
In this paper, we explain how a weak optical quadrupole interaction in atoms can be utilized. Our proposed physical model is based on the atom, which interacts at near resonance with laser light prepared as a Bessel mode. This type of beam is a class of light, which possesses a well-defined orbital angular momentum that is distinct from spin angular momentum. This property, in particular, causes optical forces to ensue from such interactions, giving distinctive features. Although the magnitude of the quadrupole interaction in standard situation is small, it plays an important role in some special cases, such as those allowing processes involving dipole-forbidden transitions or in the presence of external fields. We describe the essential features of the optical-force effects and discuss how they can, in principle, be used to influence atoms.
The term of atom optics is due to the natural analogy with light optics or the optics of photons. Some elements of the optics of atoms and molecules, based on the interaction between spatially nonuniform static magnetic or electrical fields and the magnetic or electrical dipole moment of the particles, have long been known and used fairly successfully in experimental physics. In the presence of a magnetic or electric field, the quantum state of atom or molecule is shifted, the shift depending on the initial quantum state of the particle and the field strength. A particle in nonuniform magnetic field is acted upon by the force directed along the field strength gradient. The focusing properties of a magnetic lens depend on the magnetic sublevel of atoms.