THE PHOTON RECOIL EFFECT IN THE LINEAR OPTICAL RAMSEY RESONANCE

D. D. Krylova

F.E. Dingler, V. Rieger, K. Sengstock +2 more

Fachao Hu, Canzhu Tan, Yuhai Jiang +2 more

We report on observing photon recoil effects in the absorption of a single monochromatic light at 689 nm through an ultracold 88Sr gas, where the recoil frequency is comparable to natural linewidth of the narrow-line transition 5s2 1S0–5s5p 3P1 in strontium. In the regime of high-saturation, the absorption profile becomes asymmetric due to the photon-recoil shift, which is of the same order as the natural linewidth. The lineshape is described by an extension of the optical Bloch equations including the momentum transfers to atoms during emission and absorption of photons. Our work reveals the photon recoil effects in a simplest single-beam absorption setting, which is of significant relevance to other applications such as saturation spectroscopy, Ramsey interferometry, and absorption imaging.

D. D. Krylova

R. L. Barger, Jonas Bergquist, Thomas C. English +1 more

The photon-recoil components of the Ca 6573-Å line have been resolved using the three-zone optical Ramsey interference technique with an atomic beam. Linewidths as narrow as 3 kHz HWHM (line Q of 8×1010) are reported for zone separations up to 7 cm. An indication of the light-shift-induced contraction of the recoil splitting predicted by C.J. Bordé is obtained. Techniques are discussed which should lead to an optical wavelength/frequency standard with an accuracy of better than 10−14.

Ye. V. Baklanov, B. Dubetsky, Veniamin P. Chebotayev