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arXiv:1805.02267 · Physical Review A

Time-dependent spectra of a three-level atom in the presence of electron shelving

R. Román-Ancheyta, O de los Santos-Sánchez, Levente Horvath, H. M. Castro-Beltrán

Published Jul 11, 2018• 13 citations
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Abstract

We investigate time-dependent spectra of the intermittent resonance fluorescence of a single, laser-driven, three-level atom due to electron shelving. After a quasistationary state of the strong transition, a slow decay due to shelving leads to the steady state of the three-level system. The long-term stationary spectrum consists of a coherent peak, an incoherent Mollow-like structure, and a very narrow incoherent peak at the laser frequency. We find that in the ensemble-average dynamics, the narrow peak emerges during the slow decay regime, after the Mollow spectrum has stabilized but well before an average dark time has passed. The coherent peak, being a steady-state feature, is absent during the time evolution of the spectrum.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.98.013820

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We investigate time-dependent spectra of the intermittent resonance fluorescence of a single, laser-driven, three-level atom due to electron shelving. After a quasistationary state of the strong transition, a slow decay due to shelving leads to the steady state of the three-level system. The long-term stationary spectrum consists of a coherent peak, an incoherent Mollow-like structure, and a very narrow incoherent peak at the laser frequency. We find that in the ensemble-average dynamics, the narrow peak emerges during the slow decay regime, after the Mollow spectrum has stabilized but well before an average dark time has passed. The coherent peak, being a steady-state feature, is absent during the time evolution of the spectrum.
We investigate the spectrum of resonance fluorescence of laser-driven three-level systems in the V or $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ configuration where one transition is metastable. If the laser driving the weak transition has a sufficiently small Rabi frequency we find an extremely narrow structure in the resonance fluorescence spectrum of the strong transition. Analytical expressions approximating the spectrum are given and the properties of the spectrum are discussed. With the help of a simplified model of resonance fluorescence emitted on the strong transition we are able to show that the origin of the narrow peak can be traced back to electron shelving, i.e., to the existence of light and dark periods in the resonance fluorescence emitted on the strong transition.
We investigate the absorption spectrum of a laser-driven V system in which one of the upper levels is metastable. If the Rabi frequency of the laser driving the metastable transition is sufficiently small we find an extremely narrow peak in the stationary absorption spectrum of a weak probe on the strong transition. We give analytical expressions approximating the stationary absorption spectrum. The absorption spectrum of a two-level system is investigated for the case where an upper limit for the time separation of successive emissions is given. The absorption spectrum then exhibits a delta-function-like peak and using this we then show that the origin of the narrow peak in the absorption spectrum can be traced back to electron shelving, i.e. to the existence of light and dark periods in the resonance fluorescence emitted on the strong transition.
Electron shelving gives rise to bright and dark periods in the resonance fluorescence of a three-level atom. The spectral signature of such blinking is a very narrow inelastic peak on top of the two-level atom spectrum. Here, we investigate theoretically phase-dependent fluctuations (e.g., squeezing) of intermittent resonance fluorescence in the frameworks of balanced and conditional homodyne detection (BHD and CHD, respectively). In BHD, the squeezing is reduced significantly in size and Rabi frequency range compared to that for a two-level atom. The sharp peak is found only in the spectrum of the squeezed quadrature, splitting the negative broader squeezing peak for weak fields. CHD correlates the BHD signal with the detection of emitted photons. It is thus sensitive to third-order fluctuations of the field, produced by the atom-laser nonlinearity, that cause noticeable deviations from the second-order BHD results. For weak driving, the third-order spectrum is negative, enlarging the squeezing peak but also reducing the sharp peak. For strong driving, the spectrum is dominated by third-order fluctuations, with a large sharp peak and the sidebands becoming dispersive. Finally, the addition of third-order fluctuations makes the integrated spectra of both quadratures equal in magnitude in CHD, in contrast to those by BHD. A simple mathematical approach allows us to obtain very accurate analytical results in the shelving regime.
This paper is concerned with two rather basic phenomena: the incoherent fluorescence spectrum of an atom driven by an intense laser field and the coupling of the atom to the (empty) modes of the radiation field. The sum of the many-photon processes gives rise to the inelastic part of the atomic fluorescence, which, for a two-level system, has a well-known characteristic three-peak structure known as the Mollow spectrum. From a theoretical point of view, the Mollow spectrum finds a natural interpretation in terms of transitions among laser-dressed states which are the energy eigenstates of a second-quantized two-level system strongly coupled to a driving laser field. As recently shown, the quasi-energies of the laser-dressed states receive radiative corrections which are nontrivially different from the results which one would expect from an investigation of the coupling of the bare states to the vacuum modes. In this article, we briefly review the basic elements required for the analysis of the dynamic radiative corrections, and we generalize the treatment of the radiative corrections to the incoherent part of the steady-state fluorescence to a three-level system consisting of 1S, 3P and 2S states.
The temporal behavior of a single quantum system may contain information, for instance, about macroscopic dark periods in electron shelving, which is washed out or even lost in ensemble averages. The same is true in principle for spectral information. For example, for an atom with light and dark periods one might try to spectrally analyze the light emitted in a light period of given length or, more generally, the light emitted into one solid angle while monitoring the temporal emission in another solid angle. Considering different emission behaviors one may get different spectra, i.e., spectra that are dependent on the conditions imposed. In this paper, such questions, in particular the notion of spectrum in a light period, are studied. To this end we generalize the recent quantum jump approach to include resonance-fluorescence spectra of single atoms. We explicitly show that the theory developed in this paper easily generalizes, e.g., to absorption spectra. We apply the theory to a V system that has one metastable level and that may exhibit intermittent fluorescence when driven by two lasers. We show that the spectrum of resonance fluorescence of the complete ensemble differs substantially from that observed in a light period. A physical explanation of this behavior is presented. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We describe the resonance fluorescence spectrum of an atomic three-level system where two of the states are coupled by a single monochromatic laser field. The influence of the third energy level, which interacts with the two laser-coupled states only via radiative decays, is studied in detail. For a suitable choice of parameters, this system gives rise to a very narrow structure at the laser frequency in the fluorescence spectrum which is not present in the spectrum of a two-level atom. We find those parameter ranges by a numerical analysis and use the results to derive analytical expressions for the additional narrow peak. We also derive an exact expression for the peak intensity under the assumption that a random telegraph model is applicable to the system. This model and a simple spring model are then used to describe the physical origins of the additional peak. Using these results, we explain the connection between our system, a three-level system in the V configuration where both transitions are laser driven, and a related experiment that was recently reported.