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Physical Review A

Thermometry of ultracold atoms by electromagnetically induced transparency

Thorsten Peters, Benjamin Wittrock, Frank J. Blatt, Thomas Halfmann, Леонід Петрович Яценко

Published Jun 26, 2012• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on systematic numerical and experimental investigations of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to determine temperatures in an ultracold atomic gas. The technique relies on the strong dependence of EIT on atomic motion (i.e., Doppler shifts), when the relevant atomic transitions are driven with counterpropagating probe and control laser beams. Electromagnetically induced transparency permits thermometry with satisfactory precision over a large temperature range, which can be addressed by the appropriate choice of Rabi frequency in the control beam. In contrast to time-of-flight techniques, thermometry by EIT is fast and nondestructive, i.e., essentially it does not affect the ultracold medium. In an experimental demonstration we apply both EIT and time-of-flight measurements to determine temperatures along different symmetry axes of an anisotropic ultracold gas. As an interesting feature we find that the temperatures in the anisotropic atom cloud vary in different directions.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.063416

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arXiv:1208.0118•Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Oct 9, 2013•9 citations
We report on systematic numerical and experimental investigations of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to determine temperatures in an ultracold atomic gas. The technique relies on the strong dependence of EIT on atomic motion (i.e., Doppler shifts), when the relevant atomic transitions are driven with counterpropagating probe and control laser beams. Electromagnetically induced transparency permits thermometry with satisfactory precision over a large temperature range, which can be addressed by the appropriate choice of Rabi frequency in the control beam. In contrast to time-of-flight techniques, thermometry by EIT is fast and nondestructive, i.e., essentially it does not affect the ultracold medium. In an experimental demonstration we apply both EIT and time-of-flight measurements to determine temperatures along different symmetry axes of an anisotropic ultracold gas. As an interesting feature we find that the temperatures in the anisotropic atom cloud vary in different directions.
We present a technique for measuring ion temperature using cavity-based electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) applicable for cavity QED systems. This method enables efficient extraction of the ion's phonon occupation number following sub-Doppler cooling close to the motional ground state. The proposed method requires operation in the resolved-sideband regime, where individual motional states can be selectively addressed for all relevant transitions either by selecting appropriate energy levels for the three-level system or by employing strong confinement with high secular frequencies (∼10MHz\sim 10 MHz∼10MHz). It relies on monitoring the cavity probe transmission while scanning the probe laser frequency to establish cavity-induced EIT using a control beam, thereby significantly simplifying the measurement procedure. We establish a theoretical model that demonstrates the influence of the thermal state of the trapped ion vis-à-vis the EIT linewidth measured. We show through numerical simulations how the cavity-induced EIT transmission may be used as a thermometry tool to deduce the ion temperature as well as its motional state in the sub-Doppler cooling regime, even for systems that are in the weak coupling regime.
Temperature, as a measure of thermal motion, is a significant parameter characterizing a cold atomic ensemble optical quantum memory. In a cold gas, storage lifetime strongly depends on its temperature and is associated with the spin wave decoherence. Here we experimentally demonstrate a new spin wave thermometry method relying on this direct dependence. The short-wavelength spin waves resulting from the counter-propagating configuration of the control and the probe laser beams make this thermometry highly suitable for probing in situ the atomic motion in elongated clouds as the ones used in quantum memories. Our technique is realized with comparable precision for memories that rely on electromagnetically induced transparency as well as far-detuned Raman storage.
The behavior of multilevel atomic ensembles (e.g., alkali-metal atoms) can be influenced significantly by the intensity of a driving field (or controlling/coupling field). The phase coherence between two transition pathways driven by a probe light and a driving field can lead to the effect known as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In EIT, the probe light can pass through a three-level alkali-metal atomic vapor without absorption or reflection when two coherent resonances (transition pathways driven by the driving and probe fields) are present and the linewidths of the transparency windows are sufficiently narrow. The optical characteristics of atomic systems can also be affected by the Doppler broadening of the absorption profile in a spectroscope. Our analysis indicates that both broadenings (related to the transitions excited by the driving and probe fields) can be expanded, leading to an increase in the transmittance and reflectance broadenings when a coupling field with adaptive strength is applied; the corresponding temperature would, thus, be implemented and readable. We show that the most suitable preparation for temperature sensing via an EIT vapor is to provide 80 times the spontaneous decay rate (SDR) of the excited atomic levels. This configuration results in reflectance and transmittance values that range between zero and one and cover a temperature range of 0 K to 600 K. As an example, we demonstrate the integration of specialized coating technologies with EIT ensembles for temperature sensing in the range of dozens of kelvins at and above room temperature. A key advantage of this temperature-sensing system is its ability to use adaptive resonant visible light as the probe field. This novel approach may find applications in providing unprecedented levels of precision and control in temperature sensing for coating processes and in the design of other photonic or optical devices. It can also be used to determine the temperature-dependent behavior of the specific heat of alkali-metal solids and gases (including the latent heats of vaporization or sublimation of alkali-metal solids) through the reflection and transmission spectra of the vaporized EIT atomic vapors.
We report the measurement of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with Rydberg states in ultracold 40 K Fermi gases, which is obtained through a two-photon process with the ladder scheme.Rydberg-EIT lines are obtained by measuring the atomic losses instead of the transmitted probe beam.Based on the laser frequency stabilization locking to the superstable cavity, we study the Rydberg-EIT line shapes for the 37s and 35d states.We experimentally demonstrate the significant change in the Rydberg-EIT spectrum by changing the principal quantum number of the Rydberg state (n = 37=52 and l = 0).Moreover, the transparency peak position shift is observed, which may be induced by the interaction of the Rydberg atoms.This work provides a platform to explore many interesting behaviors involving Rydberg states in ultracold Fermi gases.
We consider radiative transport in ultracold atomic systems under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. We calculate the macroscopic susceptibility and scattering tensors of the light and show that essential anisotropic optical properties such as dichroism and birefringence naturally appear. In such a case, light propagation through a spatially nonhomogeneous atomic cloud is considered for an arbitrary direction of the probe light. We determine the polarization properties of the coherently transmitted probe light as well as the polarization dependence of light incoherently scattered in an arbitrary direction. Both the steady state regime and time-dependent case are discussed. Concrete calculations are performed for the case of an inhomogeneous and ultracold sample of 87Rb^{87}\text{R}\text{b}87Rb atoms.
We systematically investigate the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and slow light properties in ultracold Bose and Fermi gases. It shows a very different property from the classical theory, which assumes frozen atomic motion. For example, the speed of light inside the atomic gases can be changed significantly near the Bose–Einstein condensation temperature, while the presence of the Fermi sea can destroy the EIT effect even at zero temperature. From an experimental point of view, such quantum EIT property is mostly manifested in the counterpropagating excitation schemes in either the low-lying Rydberg transition with a narrow linewidth or in the D2 transitions with a weak coupling field. We further investigate the interaction effects on the EIT for a weakly interacting Bose–Einstein condensate, showing an inhomogeneous broadening of the EIT profile and nontrivial change of the light speed due to the quantum depletion other than mean-field energy shifts.