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Physical Review Letters

Ultranarrow Spectral Lines via Quantum Interference

Peng Zhou, S. Swain

Published Nov 4, 1996• 323 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that ultrasharp spectral lines, with widths 2 orders of magnitude below the natural width, may be produced in the resonance fluorescence of a V-type three-level atom excited by a single-mode laser field when the dipole moments are nearly parallel. The smaller the splitting of the excited doublet, the narrower the line. This effect is due to quantum interference between the two transition pathways.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.77.3995

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We show that ultrasharp spectral lines, with widths 2 orders of magnitude below the natural width, may be produced in the resonance fluorescence of a V-type three-level atom excited by a single-mode laser field when the dipole moments are nearly parallel. The smaller the splitting of the excited doublet, the narrower the line. This effect is due to quantum interference between the two transition pathways.
We investigate the effect of quantum interference between the two transition pathways from the excited doublet to the ground level of a driven V atom on the spectral features of the resonance fluorescence emission. The ultranarrow spectral line at line center, which arises due to quantum interference, occurs over a wide range of parameters. The smaller the ratio of the excited doublet splitting to the effective Rabi frequency, the more pronounced the spectral line narrowing. However, the fluorescence emission is completely quenched when the atomic dipole moments are exactly parallel and the driving field is tuned to the average frequency of the atomic transitions. The narrow line is due to the slow decay rate of one dressed state, while the quenching arises from dressed-state trapping. A finite laser linewidth destroys the spectral narrowing features and the fluorescence quenching.
The interaction of a four-level atom consisting of one excited state, two upper levels and one ground state is considered. We use one field to drive the transition between the excited state and the ground state, and simultaneously apply another field to couple two transitions from the upper-level doublet to the ground state. We investigate how to control the central linewidth of resonance fluorescence spectrum of the driven transition via quantum interference between two transitions from the upper doublet to the ground state of the atom. In the case of orthogonal dipole moments for the upper doublet and the ground state the widths of the central line and the sidebands of the resonance fluorescence spectrum are totally controlled by the spontaneous emission rate of the upper doublet when the applying field is sufficiently strong. When the dipole moments are parallel, the central linewidth can be much narrower than the linewidths of spontaneous emission of the excited state and of the upper doublet due to the quantum interference. The smaller the upper doublet splitting, the narrower the central linewidth. We also notice that when the upper levels are degenerate the resonance fluorescence spectrum may depend on the initial condition because of the quantum interference.
We investigate the resonance fluorescence spectrum of an atomic three-level ladder system driven by two laser fields.We show that such a system emulates to a large degree a V-type atom with parallel dipole moments-the latter being a system that exhibits spontaneously generated coherence and can display ultrasharp spectral lines.We find a suitable energy scheme in a 85Rb atom and experimentally observe the narrowing of the central peak in a rubidium atomic beam.The corresponding spectrum can convincingly demonstrate the existence of spontaneously generated coherence.
The resonance fluorescence from a four-level atom driven by two coherent fields is studied. If the dipole moments between the two upper levels and each of the two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission paths from the upper levels to the lower levels will have strongly or even completely destructive quantum interference. We show that this quantum interference will result in a complete inhibition of the fluorescence when one of the driving fields is tuned at the middle point of the upper levels. The quantum interference will lead to the dependence of atomic populations at steady state on the initial condition, when both of the driving fields are tuned to the middle point of the upper levels. When the dipole moments are close to but not exactly parallel, or none of the driving fields is tuned at the middle point of the upper levels and there is a small difference between detunings of the two driving fields to the uppermost level, ultranarrow lines at the spectral center appear because of the destructive quantum interference.
We investigate the resonance fluorescence spectrum of an atomic three-level ladder system driven by two laser fields. We show that such a system emulates to a large degree a V-type atom with parallel dipole moments-the latter being a system that exhibits spontaneously generated coherence and can display ultrasharp spectral lines. We find a suitable energy scheme in a 85 Rb atom and experimentally observe the narrowing of the central peak in a rubidium atomic beam. The corresponding spectrum can convincingly demonstrate the existence of spontaneously generated coherence.
We consider a three-level V-type atomic system with the ground state coupled by a laser field to only one of the excited states, and with the two excited states coupled together by a dc field. Although the dipole moments of the two dipole-allowed transitions are assumed perpendicular, we demonstrate that this system emulates to a large degree a three-level system with parallel dipole moments---the latter being a system that exhibits quantum interference and displays a number of interesting features. As examples, we show that the system can produce extremely large values for the intensity-intensity correlation function, and that its resonance fluorescence spectrum can display ultranarrow lines. The dressed states for this system are identified, and the spectral features are interpreted in terms of transitions among these dressed states. We also show that this system is capable of exhibiting considerable squeezing.