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arXiv:2303.07118 · Physical Review A

Ramsey interferometry with arbitrary coherent-population-trapping pulse sequence

Ruihuan Fang, Chengyin Han, Bo Lü, Jiahao Huang, Chaohong Lee

Published Oct 23, 2023• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Coherent-population trapping (CPT) is a multilevel quantum coherence phenomenon of promising applications in atomic clocks and magnetometers. In particular, multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry is a powerful tool for improving the performance of CPT atomic clocks. Most studies on multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry consider periodic pulse sequence and time-independent detuning. However, to further improve the accuracy and precision, one may modify the spectrum symmetry which involves a pulse sequence with time-dependent detuning or phase shift. Here we theoretically analyze the multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry under arbitrary pulse sequences of time-dependent detuning and obtain a general analytical formula. Using our formula, we analyze the popular CPT Ramsey interferometry schemes such as two-pulse symmetric and antisymmetric spectroscopy and multipulse symmetric and antisymmetric spectroscopy. Under periodic pulses, we quantitatively obtain the influences of pulse width, pulse period, pulse number, and Rabi frequency. Furthermore, we examine the impact of CPT pulses and Rabi frequency on the light shift in both two-pulse and multipulse CPT Ramsey interference. Our theoretical results can guide the experimental design to improve the performance of atomic clocks via multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.108.043721

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Coherent-population trapping (CPT) is a multilevel quantum coherence phenomenon of promising applications in atomic clocks and magnetometers. In particular, multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry is a powerful tool for improving the performance of CPT atomic clocks. Most studies on multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry consider periodic pulse sequence and time-independent detuning. However, to further improve the accuracy and precision, one may modify the spectrum symmetry which involves a pulse sequence with time-dependent detuning or phase shift. Here we theoretically analyze the multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry under arbitrary pulse sequences of time-dependent detuning and obtain a general analytical formula. Using our formula, we analyze the popular CPT Ramsey interferometry schemes such as two-pulse symmetric and antisymmetric spectroscopy and multipulse symmetric and antisymmetric spectroscopy. Under periodic pulses, we quantitatively obtain the influences of pulse width, pulse period, pulse number, and Rabi frequency. Furthermore, we examine the impact of CPT pulses and Rabi frequency on the light shift in both two-pulse and multipulse CPT Ramsey interference. Our theoretical results can guide the experimental design to improve the performance of atomic clocks via multipulse CPT Ramsey interferometry.
The utilization of Ramsey interferometry via coherent population trapping (CPT), which enables the optical interrogation of microwave transitions without the reliance on microwave cavities, plays a crucial role in the advancement of compact and low-power quantum sensors. Particularly, high-resolution CPT-Ramsey spectroscopy of alkali-metal atoms has found extensive application in constructing miniaturized quantum sensors like atomic magnetometers and atomic clocks. Due to their well-defined environment and extended coherence time, cold atoms offer enhanced sensitivity and precision in CPT-Ramsey interferometry. This review comprehensively examines CPT-Ramsey interferometry with cold atoms, encompassing both conventional and multi-pulse techniques, and explores their potential applications in practical quantum sensors.
Sophisticated Ramsey-based interrogation protocols using composite laser pulse sequences have been recently proposed to provide next-generation high-precision atomic clocks with a near perfect elimination of frequency shifts induced during the atom-probing field interaction. We propose here a simple alternative approach to the autobalanced Ramsey interrogation protocol and demonstrate its application to a cold-atom microwave clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT). The main originality of the method, based on two consecutive Ramsey sequences with different dark periods, is to sample the central Ramsey fringes with frequency jumps finely adjusted by an additional frequency-displacement concomitant parameter, scaling as the inverse of the dark period. The advantage of this displaced frequency-jump Ramsey method is that the local oscillator (LO) frequency is used as a single physical variable to control both servo loops of the sequence, simplifying its implementation and avoiding noise associated with controlling the LO phase. When tested using a CPT cold-atom clock, the DFJR scheme reduces the sensitivity of the clock frequency to variations of the light shifts by more than an order of magnitude compared with the standard Ramsey interrogation. This simple method can be applied in a wide variety of Ramsey-spectroscopy based applications including frequency metrology with CPT-based and optical atomic clocks, mass spectrometry, and precision spectroscopy.
We present a rigorous justification for the applicability of the recently developed methods of generalized autobalanced Ramsey spectroscopy (GABRS) [V. I. Yudin et al., Phys. Rev. Appl. 9, 054034 (2018)] and combined error signal in Ramsey spectroscopy (CESRS) [ , New J. Phys. 20, 123016 (2018)] for resonances of coherent population trapping (CPT). A protocol of modified combined error signal for CPT resonances is also proposed, in which two successive interrogations of atoms under different times of free evolution are integrated in one cycle. The implementation of the GABRS and CESRS methods in a compact atomic clock based on the CPT effect allows us to significantly suppress the light shift and its fluctuation, which will lead to an improvement in the long-term stability and accuracy of these devices. Moreover, these spectroscopic schemes are insensitive to various distortions of the pulse shape, relaxation processes, errors in the generation of phase jumps, etc., which provides their high reliability and immunity to perturbations.
Abstract Light shifts induced during atom–light interactions significantly affect the medium- and long-term frequency stability of atomic clocks. Here, we employ composite laser pulse sequences to mitigate interrogation-induced light shifts in a cold-atom coherent-population-trapping clock. We obtain the anti-symmetry error signal via modulating the local oscillator phase in the free-evolution time of Ramsey interferometry. Utilizing this signal, we employ two feedback loops to simultaneously eliminate light shifts and stabilize the clock frequency using the auto-balanced Ramsey (ABR) spectroscopy scheme. Our experimental results demonstrate that this approach can reduce the clock frequency’s sensitivity to variations in light shifts by implementing four Ramsey sub-sequences. Furthermore, we show that the ABR spectroscopy scheme enhances the long-term frequency stability of the atomic clock when the averaging time τ > 5000 s.
Coherent population trapping (CPT) is extensively studied for future vapor cell clocks of high frequency stability. In the constructive polarization modulation CPT scheme, a bichromatic laser field with polarization and phase synchronously modulated is applied on an atomic medium. A high contrast CPT signal is observed in this so-called double-modulation configuration, due to the fact that the atomic population does not leak to the extreme Zeeman states, and that the two CPT dark states, which are produced successively by the alternate polarizations, add constructively. Here, we experimentally investigate CPT signal dynamics first in the usual configuration, a single circular polarization. The double-modulation scheme is then addressed in both cases: one pulse Rabi interaction and two pulses Ramsey interaction. The impact and the optimization of the experimental parameters involved in the time sequence are reviewed. We show that a simple seven-level model explains the experimental observations. The double-modulation scheme yields a high contrast similar to the one of other high contrast configurations like push-pull optical pumping or crossed linear polarization scheme, with a setup allowing a higher compactness. The constructive polarization modulation is attractive for atomic clock, atomic magnetometer, and high precision spectroscopy applications.
In the atomic frequency standard, the light shift inevitably affects the long-term stability of the atomic clock. In this work, we accurately calculated the light shifts of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and coherent population trapping (CPT) clocks operating under continuum and pulse sequence regimes by numerically solving the Liouville density matrix equation, including all the relaxation terms of a three-level system. The results show that the light shifts under pulse excitation are smaller than those under continuous excitation and the light shifts of the CPT process are much smaller than those of the EIT process under both excitations. It is also found that the light shifts in the continuous excitation increase and those in the pulse excitation decrease with an increase in the Rabi frequency. The light shifts will increase with an increase of the relaxations of the ground states for both the processes under both regimes. Compared to all process atomic clocks, the light shift of pulse-excited atomic clocks is the smallest, which will be suitable for many applications.