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Physical Review A

Optical Stern-Gerlach effect

Richard J. Cook

Published May 1, 1987• 20 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A simple theory of the splitting of an atomic beam by monochromatic light is presented. It is argued that the components of an atomic beam split by the optical Stern-Gerlach effect do not correspond to the dressed states of the atom-field system.
DOI
10.1103/physreva.35.3844

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In the optical Stern-Gerlach effect the interaction of a two-level atom with an optical-field gradient causes a state-selective deflection that leads to a splitting of the atomic trajectory. The semiclassical approach to this problem actually predicts a splitting of the atomic beam into two paths, similar to the well-known magnetic Stern-Gerlach effect for spin 1/2. Here we study a model in which the quantum nature of the field is taken into account and we show, in particular, that for an initial coherent state of the cavity light the optical Stern-Gerlach effect manifests itself as a splitting of the atomic beam into two groups containing, however, many spots. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We report the observation of the splitting of an atomic beam by the optical Stern-Gerlach effect. A beam of metastable He atoms interacts with a nearly or exactly resonant laser field with a well-defined intensity gradient perpendicular to the atomic beam. The coherent splitting of the atomic beam is produced in the case of exact resonance. For the nonresonant case, a deflection of the atomic beam is observed. We have studied the splitting and deflection of the atomic beam as a function of laser detuning from resonance. Our results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.
Two recent experiments demonstrating novel atomic lenses—one using a free standing Fresnel zone plate and the other using an optical standing wave with large (40 μm) period—will be discussed. In addition, an experiment demonstrating the splitting of an atomic beam by the optical Stern–Gerlach effect will be described. In this effect, a beam of (two-level) atoms is coherently split into two paths by an exactly resonant optical field gradient, each path containing atoms in one of the two dressed states. The field gradient was derived from a large period standing wave, produced by bouncing a laser beam from a glass surface at grazing incidence. The experiments were carried out with metastable He atoms interacting through the 23S1to 23P2 transition with an optical field at 1.083 μm. The interaction times were significantly less than the 23P natural lifetime of 100 ns, so spontaneous emission played no role during the interaction.
We study the birefringence of quantized polarized light in a magneto-optically manipulated atomic ensemble as a generalized Stern-Gerlach effect of light. To explain this engineered birefringence microscopically, we derive an effective Shr\"odinger equation for the spatial motion of two orthogonally polarized components, which behave as a spin with an effective magnetic moment leading to a Stern-Gerlach split in a nonuniform magnetic field. We show that the electromagnetically-induced-transparency mechanism can enhance the magneto-optical Stern-Gerlach effect of light in the presence of a control field with a transverse spatial profile and a nonuniform magnetic field.