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Journal of Modern Optics

Quantum interference induced sub-wavelength atomic localization

Emmanuel Paspalakis, A. F. Terzis, P. L. Knight

Published Aug 15, 2005• 79 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate how observation of upper state atomic populations localize atomic position distributions for three-level atoms within a classical standing wave light field. We consider a three-level atom, with the standing wave near-resonantly coupling one transition and a probe laser field near-resonantly coupling the second transition. Two different cases of localization are identified and we explore the dependence of localization on the parameters of the field–atom interaction.

DOI
10.1080/09500340500072489

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We investigate how observation of upper state atomic populations localize atomic position distributions for three-level atoms within a classical standing wave light field. We consider a three-level atom, with the standing wave near-resonantly coupling one transition and a probe laser field near-resonantly coupling the second transition. Two different cases of localization are identified and we explore the dependence of localization on the parameters of the field–atom interaction.
Entanglement of the atom and field leads towards the measurement of the state of the atom or field depending on the kind of measurement made. Taking advantage of this fact, we propose spectroscopic methods for the single atom localization within the subwavelength domain of the optical standing wave field. \n \nWhen a two-level atom interacts with some intense radiation field the spectrum of the scattered light signal exhibits a three-peak Mollow spectrum. We propose a scheme of atom localization based on the resonance fluorescence from a two-level atom interacting with a standing wave field. The Rabi frequency is considered to be position dependent and therefore, the spontaneously emitted photon carries the information about the center-of-mass motion of the atom. This leads to the localization of the single atom by measuring the frequency of the spontaneously emitted photon even during the passage of the atom through the standing wave field. We predict a spatial resolution in position information of up to λ/60 where λ is the optical wavelength. \n \nDetuning of the coherent field with the atomic transition plays an important role in the characterization of the peaks present in the Autler- Townes spectrum of a three-level atom. Strong line narrowing is observed in one of the peaks of the Autler- Townes doublet depending on the choice of the detuning. We investigate how this detuning effects the position information of the atom inside the standing wave field in upper-level and lower-level coupling schemes of Autler- Townes microscopy. We show an enhancement in precision position measurement by factor of at least 4 in upper-level coupling scheme due to the quantum interference phenomenon. This enhancement is not observed in lower-level coupling scheme where the quantum interference is not taking place. \n \nWe also consider a system where a three-level atom is interacting with a monochromatic radiation field in such a way that the decay takes place from upper level to the intermediate level with a rate T and from intermediate level to lower level at a rate γ. This type of system exhibits a non stationary scattered light signal. We report the results of the spontaneous emission spectrum for non stationary scattered light signal by using the definition of time-dependent physical spectrum. This is a rare example of problems where time-dependent physical spectrum can be calculated exactly. We study the characteristics of the spontaneous spectrum for a resonant and off-resonant case and show that this physical spectrum recovers the results of earlier work quite successfully. We also show that the decay rate r disturbs the atomic coherence and finally eliminates the dark line from the center of the spontaneous spectrum. Here we only consider upper-level coupling case for the time-dependent spontaneous spectrum because in lower-level coupling case the system automatically evolved a pumping mechanism due to the coupling of ground level to the upper level via radiation field. Thus a steady-state limit exists in lower-level coupling scheme. \n \nWe investigate the phenomenon of atom localization by using the non stationary Autler-Townes microscopy. The decay rate T reduces the precision in position measurement which is consistent with the results of the non stationary spontaneous emission spectrum. This is due to the fact that for the upper-level coupling case, the standing wave field is coupled to atomic transition and it induces a coherence in the upper-level atomic transition but the spontaneous decay from the upper level to the intermediate level disturbs this coherence. When the effect of the spontaneous decay dominates the coherence effect the quantum interference phenomenon vanishes and thus the precision in localization reduces.
Coherent interaction of an atom with a position-dependent standing-wave cavity field can impart position information of a moving atom through the cavity leading to subwavelength atom localization. We show that the position of the atom along the standing-wave field is determined when the probe-field absorption is measured. We find out that absorption of the weak probe field at a certain frequency leads to subwavelength localization of the atom in either of the two half-wavelength regions of the cavity field by appropriate choice of the system parameters. In addition, we demonstrate that the position information of a three-level V-shaped moving atom strongly depends on the relative phase of applied fields. By appropriate choice of the relative phase, it is shown that the scheme can be used for localizing an atom flying through the standing-wave field to the sub-half-wavelength domain.
Schemes for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) atomic states localization in a five level M-type system using standing-wave laser fields are presented. In the upper two levels of the system we see a `coupled' localization for both 2D and 3D case. Here, the state in which majority of population will be found depends on the sign of the detunings between the upper levels and the intermediate level. The experimental implementation of the scheme using the D2 line of Rb is also proposed. The scheme may be manipulated to achieve subwavelength localization of atoms in one dimension to a spatial width, smaller by a factor of 1000 than the incident wavelength.
We propose a three-level atomic system where quantum coherence is generated by a classical standing-wave field coupled to the two upper excited decaying levels. Quantum coherence results in cancellation of the spontaneously emitted spectral lines depending on the choice of the phase of the standing wave. We exploit this phenomenon for precision measurement of the atomic position in the standing wave. Measurement of the conditional position probability distribution shows one to eight peaks per unit wavelength of the standing wave. Only one controllable parameter, that is, the phase of the driving standing wave, is enough to control these atomic positions. Along with the other results, the result of obtaining a single peak is remarkable as it enhances the efficiency of our system by a factor of 8.