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Physical Review A

Multizone optical Ramsey resonance with traveling waves

Atsuo Morinaga

Published Jun 1, 1992• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A general equation for the interaction of atoms with many separated traveling waves is introduced, and the oscillating terms corresponding to the Ramsey fringes are found in the equation. The features of the multizone Ramsey resonance are quite comprehensible with the aid of the diagrammatic representation of the atomic beam and laser fields. The resonance condition and the narrowing effect of the fringe width are discussed. Using the intercombination line of a Ca atom, the multizone Ramsey resonances of up to ten separated fields were demonstrated. With the ten separated fields, the Ramsey fringes with a contrast of 130% to the saturation dip could be obtained at a relatively small excitation power.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.45.8019

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A general equation for the interaction of atoms with many separated traveling waves is introduced, and the oscillating terms corresponding to the Ramsey fringes are found in the equation. The features of the multizone Ramsey resonance are quite comprehensible with the aid of the diagrammatic representation of the atomic beam and laser fields. The resonance condition and the narrowing effect of the fringe width are discussed. Using the intercombination line of a Ca atom, the multizone Ramsey resonances of up to ten separated fields were demonstrated. With the ten separated fields, the Ramsey fringes with a contrast of 130% to the saturation dip could be obtained at a relatively small excitation power.
Evidence of coherence effects has been observed in the Zeeman sublevels by means of nonlinear level crossing in a metastable Ca beam with resonance width 3 orders of magnitude less than the radiative linewidth of the investigated transitions. By using two separate traveling waves, Ramsey-like fringes have been observed. The final measured widths are determined by the transit time, are weakly dependent on the magnetic-field inhomogeneities, and are independent of the natural width of the optical transitions and the laser bandwidth.
We present a new interaction geometry for optical Ramsey fringes comprised of four traveling waves instead of the three usual standing waves. First, we demonstrate experimentally that the new method leads to an improved contrast, using the optothermal detection of the vibrational excitation of SF6{\mathrm{SF}}_{6}SF6​ in a supersonic beam illuminated by a waveguide CO2{\mathrm{CO}}_{2}CO2​ laser. Second, we give a simple theoretical description of the method, using evolution matrices of spinors and pseudospin-vector representations of these spinors. Finally, we introduce strong-field density-matrix diagrams to discuss the differences between the various interaction geometries as well as between the Ramsey fringes and the usual stimulated photon echoes.
The interaction of an atomic beam with four traveling-wave laser beams leads to optically induced Ramsey fringes in the atomic beam. This experimental setup has been used as an optical frequency standard as well as a matter-wave interferometer. We calculate for two-level atoms the shift of the fringes due to the influence of fairly general external forces in lowest order of a perturbation approach. A comparison with the phase shift found in a corresponding WKB treatment of the interaction geometry is made. The consequences of beam reversal and cooling of the atomic beam are studied. As an application, we treat the linear acceleration and rotation of the interferometer and discuss the influence of space-time curvature.
It is shown that the interaction of three standing-wave light beams with a low-pressure gas gives rise to a narrow absorption power resonance. The width of this resonance is related to the transit time of gas atoms between the beams. The weak-field case is analyzed. A formula for a Held of arbitrary intensity is obtained for the situation when the dimensions of the beams are much smaller than the distances between them. Numerical calculations are reported of the resonance amplitude and profile. Optimal (in respect of the field intensity) conditions for the observation of the effect are determined. If the distances between the beams are sufficiently large, it should be possible to observe resonances of width equal to the homogeneous width of atomic radiation lines in spite of the considerable field and transit broadening. The possibility of using this power resonance in stabilization of the emission frequency of gas lasers is considered.