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Optics Letters

Sublevel echoes selectively excited by light-pulse trains: synchronized-quantum-beat echoes

M. Tanigawa, Yukio Fukuda, T. Kohmoto, K. Sakuno, T. Hashi

Published Dec 1, 1983• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on a new type of sublevel echoes, synchronized-quantum-beat (SQB) echoes, generated by a successive application of two resonant light-pulse trains. The echoes are selectively generated for a sublevel pair whose frequency splitting is equal to an integral multiple of the repetition frequency of the light pulses. By using mode locked laser pulses tuned to the D(1) transition, we observed SQB echoes (and free induction decay) for all Zeeman and hyperfine transitions in the ground state of sodium atoms in low magnetic fields.

DOI
10.1364/ol.8.000620

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Physical Review A•Aug 1, 1981•59 citations
We report on a new type of sublevel echoes, synchronized-quantum-beat (SQB) echoes, generated by a successive application of two resonant light-pulse trains. The echoes are selectively generated for a sublevel pair whose frequency splitting is equal to an integral multiple of the repetition frequency of the light pulses. By using mode locked laser pulses tuned to the D(1) transition, we observed SQB echoes (and free induction decay) for all Zeeman and hyperfine transitions in the ground state of sodium atoms in low magnetic fields.
We develop a new theoretical treatment that can explain, for the first time to our knowledge, unexpectedly strong synchronized-quantum-beat-echo (SQBE) signals that we previously observed in the ground state of sodium atoms. The SQBE is obtained by successive application of two light-pulse trains tuned to an optical transition under the condition that the pulse repetition frequency or that of one of its harmonics is equal to the separation of a ground-state sublevel pair. The theory is developed for weak optical pumping for which the duration of the light-pulse trains is much longer than the spontaneous decay time of the excited state. We show that the echo is formed effectively as a result of nonuniform depopulation from the sublevel pair to the other levels because of frequency-selective optical pumping during the rapid spontaneous decay of the excited state. Details of the experiment with sodium atoms are described also.
Photon-echo quantum beats arising from magnetic splitting of the cesium $7{P}_{\frac{3}{2}}\ensuremath{-}6{S}_{\frac{1}{2}}$ transition were observed in a dilute atomic vapor by means of a novel polarization-rotation technique. The quantum-beat spectrum contains frequencies generated by the hyperfine structure of the 7P327{P}_{\frac{3}{2}}7P23​​ level as well as those due to the Zeeman splitting of both ground and excited levels. Experimental data for both F=3F=3F=3 and F=4F=4F=4 hyperfine components of the 6S126{S}_{\frac{1}{2}}6S21​​ ground state and for several echo delay times were fitted to calculated spectra, including corrections arising from Faraday rotation of the echo pulses.
We report on a spin-echo phenomenon that is induced between Zeeman sublevels by two laser pulses close to an optical resonance. The echo formation is due to a Zeeman light shift during the second off-resonant pulse; this light pulse creates a fictitious magnetic field that leads to the phase reversal of the spins. Our experimental results on the 2^{2}2S1/2{\mathit{S}}_{1/2}S1/2​ sodium ground state are in good qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions.
The method of Synchronized Quantum Beat Spectroscopy has been improved by introducing the amplitude modulation on the excitation pulse train. By using an amplitude-modulated train of picosecond pulses from a cw mode-locked dye laser, we obtain resonance enhancement of the substate coherence (quantum beat) at f 0 = n f p + n ' f m ( n , n ' : integer, f 0 : sublevel splitting, f p : pulse repetition frequency, f m : modulation frequency), which can be detected by monitoring the optical anisotropy due to the substate coherence. Resonances can be obtained in the frequency domain by sweeping f m . Pressure shift coefficients of the hyperfine splitting in Na 3 2 S 1/2 are measured to be 82, 61, -1 and -47 Hz/Torr for He, N 2 , Ar and Kr, respectively, within an accuracy of ±3 Hz/Torr.
We report on optically induced spin-echo phenomena associated with Zeeman coherences in a sublevel manifold. The experiments on the ground state of sodium show multiple echoes occurring periodically after a double-pulse excitation sequence in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The echo formation mechanism is attributed to a light-shift-induced transfer of sublevel coherence among the nondegenerate substates. This mechanism is verified experimentally, using a modulated excitation scheme with subsequent phase-sensitive detection.