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Physical Review A

Suppression of two-photon absorption by quantum interference

Min Yan, Edward G. Rickey, Yifu Zhu

Published Sep 1, 2001• 85 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Electromagnetically induced transparency may lead to suppression of two-photon absorption in a four-level atomic system. This phenomenon is manifested by destructive quantum interference among multiple excitation paths created by a coherent coupling field. We report an experimental observation of such suppression of two-photon absorption in cold ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.64.043807

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Electromagnetically induced transparency may lead to suppression of two-photon absorption in a four-level atomic system. This phenomenon is manifested by destructive quantum interference among multiple excitation paths created by a coherent coupling field. We report an experimental observation of such suppression of two-photon absorption in cold 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms.
Atomic coherence and interference in an atomic medium exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency may lead to enhancement or suppression of nonlinear susceptibilities. Absorptive photon switching has been observed by constructive quantum interference, which is based on the enhanced third-order, nonlinear absorption in a four-level system. In a different four-level system, suppression of the two-photon absorption by destructive quantum interference has been observed. Experiments were carried out on 87Rb atoms cooled and confined in a magneto-optical trap and the experimental results agree with theoretical calculations of simple four-level model systems.
Summary form only given. It has been shown that two-photon absorption can be controlled by quantum interference in the multiple excitation paths created by a coupling field. Recently, Harris and Yamamoto (1998) described a four-level system that utilizes electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to switch on and off the two-photon excitation. Because the cancellation of the one-photon excitation, the enhanced two-photon excitation may be observable under very low light intensities. We have carried out an experimental study of two-photon excitation via quantum interference in multi-level Rb atomic systems based on the D/sub 1/ and D/sub 2/ transitions. The Rb systems can be viewed as quasi-four level systems. The experiments were done in an /sup 87/Rb isotope vapor cell.
Summary form only given. Linear and nonlinear atomic response can be manipulated by quantum interference in an atomic medium in which electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is created by a coherent coupling field. Recently Agarwal and Harshawardhan showed that two-photon absorption may be enhanced or suppressed by quantum interference in a ladder-type atomic system (Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 77, p. 1039, 1996). We report an experimental demonstration of two-photon suppression by quantum interference in /sup 87/Rb atoms cooled and confined in a magneto-optical trap (MOT).
We report an experimental observation of third-order nonlinear absorption by quantum interference in (87)Rb atoms cooled and confined in a magneto-optic trap. A coupling laser creates electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a multilevel Rb system in which the third-order nonlinear absorption is enhanced by constructive quantum interference while the linear absorption is inhibited by destructive interference. Our experiment demonstrates the EIT system proposed by Harris and Yamamoto [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3611 (1998)], which absorbs two photons but not one photon in the dressed-state picture.
Atomic coherence and interference manifested by electromagentically induced transparency (EIT) and coherent population trapping (CPT) plays an important role in the current studies of atom-photon interactions and has found numerous applications in optical physics. EIT is created in a three-level atomic system by a coupling field and results in destructive interference between two excitation paths of a weak probe laser interacting with the atomic medium. This leads to suppressed linear absorption and rapidly varying atomic dispersion for the probe laser near the atomic resonance, which provides the platform for a variety of applications such as nonlinear optics at low light levels, slow light manipulation, and quantum state engineering for photons and atoms. Here we extend the simple three-level EIT system to more complicated and versatile configurations in a multi-level atomic system coupled by multiple laser fields. We show that with multiple excitation paths provided by different laser fields, phase-dependent quantum interference is induced: either constructive or destructive interference can be realized by varying the relative phases among the laser fields. Two specific examples are discussed. One is a three-level system coupled by bichromatic coupling and probe fields, in which the phase dependent interference between the resonant two-photon Raman transitions can be initiated and controlled. Another is a four-level system coupled by two coupling fields and two probe fields, in which a double-EIT configuration is created by the phase-dependent interference between three-photon and one-photon excitation processes. We analyze the coherently coupled multi-level atomic system and discuss the control parameters for the onset of constructive or destructive quantum interference. We describe two experiments performed with cold Rb atoms that can be approximately treated as the coherently coupled three-level and four-level atomic systems respectively. The experimental results show the phase-dependent quantum coherence and interference in the multi-level Rb atomic system, and agree with the theoretical calculations based on the coherently coupled three-level or four-level model system.
We analyze nonlinear excitation in a four-level atomic system that exhibits electromagnetically induced transparency induced by a strong coupling laser. We show that, at the line center of the atomic transition, the nondegenerate two-photon excitation in the dressed states can be enhanced by constructive quantum interference in two excitation paths while the linear absorption is inhibited by destructive quantum interference. We report an experimental study of the interference-enhanced two-photon absorption in a multilevel Λ-type rubidium atomic system and compare the measurements with the theoretical calculations.