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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Deflection of a Λ-type three-level atom by a light field: a mechanical demonstration of the coherent population trapping effect

Omar Marzook Al-Dossary, V. E. Lembessis

Published May 22, 2012• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider the deflection of a three-level atom of Λ-type interacting with a light field of two coherent laser beams. We employ the dressed state formalism, which is suitable for large Rabi frequencies and/or large detunings. A full study of the interaction and relaxation processes is performed. We show that a beam of atoms is split into three beams once it crosses the light field. This is a three-state version of the well-known optical Stern–Gerlach effect, which has been theoretically studied and experimentally demonstrated for two-level atoms. Under coherent population trapping conditions, the splitting of the beam becomes twofold. This gives us, in principle, the opportunity of a mechanical demonstration of the coherent population trapping effect.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/45/11/115502

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We consider the deflection of a three-level atom of Λ-type interacting with a light field of two coherent laser beams. We employ the dressed state formalism, which is suitable for large Rabi frequencies and/or large detunings. A full study of the interaction and relaxation processes is performed. We show that a beam of atoms is split into three beams once it crosses the light field. This is a three-state version of the well-known optical Stern–Gerlach effect, which has been theoretically studied and experimentally demonstrated for two-level atoms. Under coherent population trapping conditions, the splitting of the beam becomes twofold. This gives us, in principle, the opportunity of a mechanical demonstration of the coherent population trapping effect.
We report the observation of the splitting of an atomic beam by the optical Stern-Gerlach effect. A beam of metastable He atoms interacts with a nearly or exactly resonant laser field with a well-defined intensity gradient perpendicular to the atomic beam. The coherent splitting of the atomic beam is produced in the case of exact resonance. For the nonresonant case, a deflection of the atomic beam is observed. We have studied the splitting and deflection of the atomic beam as a function of laser detuning from resonance. Our results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.
In the optical Stern-Gerlach effect, the interaction of a traveling two-level atom with the electromagnetic field of an optical cavity causes a splitting of the atomic trajectory. One may ask if it is possible to single out particular initial configurations of the system that will lead to selective scattering, in which the atoms follow only one trajectory. We show that these configurations consist of a coherent superposition of the atomic internal states, and of a field phase state or a field coherent state, with a precise phase relation between the two subsystems: The same configurations which produce the so-called atomic coherent trapping in the Jaynes-Cummings model.
In the optical Stern-Gerlach effect the interaction of a two-level atom with an optical-field gradient causes a state-selective deflection that leads to a splitting of the atomic trajectory. The semiclassical approach to this problem actually predicts a splitting of the atomic beam into two paths, similar to the well-known magnetic Stern-Gerlach effect for spin 1/2. Here we study a model in which the quantum nature of the field is taken into account and we show, in particular, that for an initial coherent state of the cavity light the optical Stern-Gerlach effect manifests itself as a splitting of the atomic beam into two groups containing, however, many spots. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Master equation methods are used to investigate the effects of a broad-band squeezed vacuum on a three-level atom of the lambda configuration. The two-mode squeezed vacuum is treated as a Markovian reservoir in a non-stationary phase-dependent state. In addition to the squeezed vacuum the atom is driven by two coherent laser fields each of which, depending on the polarization, can couple to one or both of the atomic transitions. We show that in general the optical Bloch equations for the atomic density matrix elements have oscillatory coefficients, thereby necessitating the use of Floquet methods. For the case of equal laser frequencies, which are also equal to the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum, the coefficients of the Bloch equations become time independent and stationary solutions for the populations and coherences are obtained by standard matrix methods. For the ordinary vacuum the usual coherent population trapping effect at two-photon resonance is obtained, with the upper state population being zero. An unsqueezed thermal field partially destroys the trapping effect as the upper state population is no longer zero at two-photon resonance. The squeezed vacuum has the effect of improving the trapping in that the coherence hole becomes more pronounced for some values of the relative phase between the squeezed vacuum and the driving fields. The additional effects of a coherence transfer rate between the two optical coherences, which occurs for special choices of angular momentum quantum numbers are also studied. For the case of equal laser frequencies, the inclusion of this coherence transfer process destroys population trapping and reduces the lambda system to a two-level system. However, for the case of unequal laser frequencies, the coherence transfer process in combination with the squeezed vacuum can restore to some extent the population trapping. We show that other features that do not occur for two-level atoms, such as stationary population inversions between pairs of the atomic levels, also depend on the relative phase and can be enhanced in the squeezed vacuum. In the case of unequal frequencies of the driving fields the population in the upper state depends on the relative phase only when the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum is equal to one of the two frequencies of the driving fields. When the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum is slightly detuned from both frequencies of the driving fields, the population in the upper state is insensitive to the relative phase but is dependent on the degree of squeezing. For large detunings, the population does not show any dependence on the degree of squeezing and its distribution in function of the two-photon detuning is similar to that in the thermal vacuum field.
The interaction between a three-level atom and a polychromatic field with an equidistant spectrum (Λ-scheme of the atom--field interaction) has been studied theoretically. It is shown that the interaction of an atom with such a field can be reduced to its interaction with a bichromatic field with additional light shifts of transition frequencies and an additional coupling of the lower atomic levels, which is proportional to the field intensity. Owing to this coupling, the idea of the coherent population trapping can be considered only as an approximation, because the dark state is not an eigenstate of the effective Hamiltonian in the general case of arbitrary dipole moments. The analyzed model gives a simple theoretical interpretation for the formation of the atomic state, which is close to the coherent population trapping, in the radiation field of a femtosecond laser.
We show theoretically that by applying a bichromatic electromagnetic field, the dressed states of a monochromatically driven two-level atom can be pumped into a coherent superposition termed as dressed-state coherent population trapping. Such effect can be viewed as a new doorknob to manipulate a two-level system via its control over dressed-state populations. Application of this effect in the precision measurement of Rabi frequency, the unexpected population inversion and lasing without inversion are discussed to demonstrate such controllability.