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Coherent Backscattering of Light From an Ultra Cold Gas of Rubidium-85 Atoms

P. Kulatunga

Published Jan 1, 2003• 0 citations
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Abstract

This thesis reports on the experimental study of coherent radiative transport in an ultracold gas of 85Rb atoms confined in a magneto-optic trap. Measurements are made of the polarization dependence of the spatial and spectral profile of light backscattered from the sample. The results shows an interferometric enhancement sensitive to coherent multiple scattering in the atomic gas, and strong variations with the polarization of the incident and detected light. Effects due to coherent enhancement of weak non-resonant transitions are also observed. Comparison of the measurements with realistic quantum Monte Carlo simulations of Kupriyanov, et al [1] yield very good agreement.

DOI
10.25777/nvhm-m443

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This thesis reports on the experimental study of coherent radiative transport in an ultracold gas of 85Rb atoms confined in a magneto-optic trap. Measurements are made of the polarization dependence of the spatial and spectral profile of light backscattered from the sample. The results shows an interferometric enhancement sensitive to coherent multiple scattering in the atomic gas, and strong variations with the polarization of the incident and detected light. Effects due to coherent enhancement of weak non-resonant transitions are also observed. Comparison of the measurements with realistic quantum Monte Carlo simulations of Kupriyanov, et al [1] yield very good agreement.
We report an experimental study of correlated multiple light scattering in an ultracold gas of 85Rb{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb confined in a magneto-optic trap. Measurements are made of the polarization dependence of the spatial and spectral profile of light backscattered from the sample. The results show an interferometric enhancement sensitive to coherent multiple scattering in the atomic gas, and strong variations with the polarization of the incident and detected light. The spatial width and peak value of the enhancement are found to be dependent on the sample size. Comparison of all the measurements with realistic quantum Monte Carlo simulations yields a very good agreement.
Development of a theoretical treatment of multiple coherent light scattering in an ultracold atomic gas is reported. Specific application is made to coherent backscattering of a weak-radiation field from realistically modeled samples of ultracold atomic 85Rb.{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}.85Rb. Comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations of the spatial, spectral, and polarization dependence of the backscattering line shape are made and compared with available experimental results.
We report experimental observations of polarization-dependent coherence loss occurring in strong-field multiple scattering of light in ultracold atomic 85Rb. A measure of coherence in multiple light scattering is the degree of contrast of the coherent backscattering enhancement from the vapour. For resonance saturation parameters up to 9, we see light-polarization-dependent modification of the backscattering enhancement, suggesting that inelastic atomic light scattering and dynamic atomic magnetization may play important roles in the multiple scattering process for 85Rb.
We report a combined theoretical and experimental study of the spectral and polarization dependence of near-resonant radiation coherently backscattered from an ultracold gas of 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms. Measurements in a $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}6\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{MHz}$ range about the $5s\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}^{2}S_{1∕2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5p\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}^{2}P_{3∕2}$, $F=3\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=4$ hyperfine transition are compared with simulations based on a realistic model of the experimental atomic density distribution. In the simulations, the influence of heating of the atoms in the vapor, magnetization of the vapor, finite spectral bandwidth, and other nonresonant hyperfine transitions are considered. Good agreement is found between the simulations and measurements.
We study light coherent transport in the weak localization regime using magneto-optically cooled strontium atoms. The coherent backscattering cone is measured in the four polarization channels using light resonant with a J(g) = 0-->J(e) = 1 transition of the strontium atom. We find an enhancement factor close to 2 in the helicity preserving channel, in agreement with theoretical predictions. This observation confirms the effect of internal structure as the key mechanism for the contrast reduction observed with a rubidium cold cloud [G. Labeyrie et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5266 (1999)]. Experimental results are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations taking into account geometry effects.