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Optics and Spectroscopy

Coherent backscattering of nonmonochromatic light by an ensemble of cold atoms

Dmitriy V. Kupriyanov, Ларионов Николай Владимирович, Igor M. Sokolov

Published Jun 8, 2004• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The coherent backscattering of light by an ensemble of cold atoms in a magneto-optical trap is studied theoretically. The effect of the width and shape of the incident light spectrum on the enhancement factor and total intensity of the backscattered light is analyzed. The calculations are performed for 85 Rb atoms with allowance for the entire hyperfine and Zeeman structure of the ground and excited states of the atoms, spatial inhomogeneity of the atomic cloud, and motion of the atoms.

DOI
10.1134/1.1753640

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The coherent backscattering of light by an ensemble of cold atoms in a magneto-optical trap is studied theoretically. The effect of the width and shape of the incident light spectrum on the enhancement factor and total intensity of the backscattered light is analyzed. The calculations are performed for 85 Rb atoms with allowance for the entire hyperfine and Zeeman structure of the ground and excited states of the atoms, spatial inhomogeneity of the atomic cloud, and motion of the atoms.
The coherent backscattering of light by an ensemble of cold atoms located in a magneto-optical trap is investigated theoretically. The dependence of the gain coefficient on the probe frequency is analyzed in a wide spectral range covering the entire hyperfine structure of the excited state. The calculation is performed for 85 Rb atoms. It is found that destructive interference can be observed at certain frequencies, which results in gain coefficients smaller than unity. The angular distribution of scattered light is investigated for corresponding frequencies and the dependence of the shape of the cone of destructive interference on the size of the atomic cloud and its optical thickness is analyzed.
Coherent backscattering of light by optically dense atomic ensembles is considered. The spectrum of scattered radiation is studied. The dynamics of the total intensity and enhancement factor is considered in the case of scattering of pulsed radiation. The spectral and temporal characteristics of coherent backscattering are analysed depending on the observation conditions. As an example, calculations are performed for an ensemble of 85 Rb atoms in a magnetooptical trap. It is shown that analysis of the correlation and dynamic properties of scattered radiation makes it possible to separate contributions from different orders of scattering and thereby to study the process of radiation trapping in dense media in more detail.
Coherent backscattering of pulsed radiation emitted by optically dense atomic ensembles is considered. The diagrammatic technique is used for deriving analytic expressions for correlation functions of scattered light, which make it possible to take into account all main factors affecting the dynamics of the process, including the hyperfine and Zeeman structure of the ground and first excited states of atoms, polarization of probe radiation, the actual shape and size of an atomic cloud, its spatial inhomogeneity, motion of atoms, and angular-momentum polarization of atoms. On the basis of these relations, the time dependence of the total intensity and the dependence of enhancement factor of backscattered light on the pulse duration, type of polarization of the polarization system of observation, optical thickness of the scattering medium, and the carrier frequency of the pulse are investigated. The calculations are performed for an ensemble of rubidium-85 atoms cooled in magnetooptical traps.
We report the first observation of coherent backscattering of light from a sample of laser-cooled atoms. Rubidium 85 atoms are captured from a room-temperature vapor in a magneto-optical trap, and illuminated with a laser probe. The angular intensity distribution of the backscattered light is recorded on a cooled CCD detector. We observe a small enhancement factor in all polarization channels, including the helicity preserving channel where the enhancement is only 1.08. This surprising observation is attributed to the existence of contrast reduction processes involving the atom's internal structure.
We study the effect of an external magnetic field on coherent backscattering of light from a cold rubidium vapor. We observe that the backscattering enhancement factor can be increased with B. This surprising behavior shows that the coherence length of the system can be increased by adding a magnetic field, in sharp contrast with usual situations. This is mainly due to the lifting of the degeneracy between Zeeman sublevels. We find good agreement between our experimental data and a full Monte Carlo simulation, taking into account the magneto-optical effects and the geometry of the atomic cloud.