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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation with amplitude-modulated light

Pawel Anielski, Julia Sudyka, Wojciech Gawlik, Szymon Pustelny

Published May 1, 2013• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We study the possibility of creating quantum superposition states in alkali atoms. Our methodology is based on the phenomenon of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR). The effect of magneto-optical rotation occurs whenever the resonant light propagates through the medium immersed in a longitudinal magnetic field and manifests itself as a rotation of the polarization plane of light. The effect is strongly enhanced by the nonlinearity of light-atom interaction and allows state-of-the art atomic magnetometry. On the other hand, the nonlinear magneto-rotation provides means to controllably affect and detect atom's quantum state. We present the work on this topic and report on some characteristics of superposition quantum states such as lifetimes or efficiency of it's creation in various conditions.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-iqec.2013.6801796

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We study the possibility of creating quantum superposition states in alkali atoms. Our methodology is based on the phenomenon of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR). The effect of magneto-optical rotation occurs whenever the resonant light propagates through the medium immersed in a longitudinal magnetic field and manifests itself as a rotation of the polarization plane of light. The effect is strongly enhanced by the nonlinearity of light-atom interaction and allows state-of-the art atomic magnetometry. On the other hand, the nonlinear magneto-rotation provides means to controllably affect and detect atom's quantum state. We present the work on this topic and report on some characteristics of superposition quantum states such as lifetimes or efficiency of it's creation in various conditions.
Larmor precession of laser-polarized atoms contained in antirelaxation-coated cells, detected via nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR), is a promising technique for a new generation of ultrasensitive atomic magnetometers. For magnetic fields directed along the light propagation direction, resonances in NMOR appear when linearly polarized light is frequency or amplitude modulated at twice the Larmor frequency. Because the frequency of these resonances depends on the magnitude but not the direction of the field, they are useful for scalar magnetometry. Additional NMOR resonances at the Larmor frequency appear when the magnetic field is tilted away from the light propagation direction in the plane defined by the light propagation and polarization vectors. These resonances, studied both experimentally and with a density matrix calculation in the present work, offer a convenient method of achieving additional information about a direction of the magnetic field.
Amplitude-modulated nonlinear magneto-optical rotation is a powerful technique that offers a possibility of controllable generation of given quantum states. In this paper, we demonstrate creation and detection of specific ground-state magnetic-sublevel superpositions in 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb. By appropriate tuning of the modulation frequency and magnetic-field induction the efficiency of a given coherence generation is controlled. The processes are analyzed versus different experimental parameters.
Recent work investigating resonant nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) related to long-lived $({\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\mathrm{rel}}\ensuremath{\sim}1\mathrm{s})$ ground-state atomic coherences has demonstrated potential magnetometric sensitivities exceeding ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}11}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{G}∕\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ for small $(\ensuremath{\lesssim}1\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{G}$) magnetic fields. In the present work, NMOR using frequency-modulated light (FM NMOR) is studied in the regime where the longitudinal magnetic field is in the geophysical range$(\ensuremath{\sim}500\mathrm{mG})$, of particular interest for many applications. In this regime a splitting of the FM NMOR resonance due to the nonlinear Zeeman effect is observed. At sufficiently high light intensities, there is also a splitting of the FM NMOR resonances due to ac Stark shifts induced by the optical field, as well as evidence of alignment-to-orientation conversion type processes. The consequences of these effects for FM-NMOR-based atomic magnetometry in the geophysical field range are considered.
The authors report on their investigations on nonlinear Faraday effect (NFE), i.e. light-intensity dependent rotation of the polarization plane of linearly polarized light upon its propagation through a medium placed in a magnetic field. The phenomenon is associated with quantum superpositions of atomic or molecular levels of particles constituting the medium. In this context it is based on the same grounds as electromagnetically induced transparency, coherent population trapping, storage and retrieval of light pulse from a medium. The paper also discusses the mechanisms of generation and detection of the superpositions with light and means of controllable tailoring of a quantum state in long-living (lifetimes >10 ms) atomic state.
The detection of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) of polarized light through alkali atomic vapor is a highly sensitive technique for measuring magnetic fields. We demonstrate that when using frequency modulated light to excite the NMOR resonance, it is possible to cause the system to self-oscillate. The NMOR signal is not a simple replica of the sine wave modulation of the light, but rather contains many higher harmonics of the modulation frequency, and we implement two ways of processing the signal to recover the fundamental modulation frequency in the feedback loop and induce self-oscillation. Self-oscillation simplifies and reduces the power consumption of the electronics required to operate a magnetometer, making the NMOR technique attractive for commercialized magnetic sensors.
A self-oscillating magnetometer based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation using amplitude-modulated pump light and unmodulated probe light (AM-NMOR) in 87Rb has been constructed and tested towards a goal of airborne detection of magnetic anomalies. In AM-NMOR, stroboscopic optical pumping via amplitude modulation of the pump beam creates alignment of the ground electronic state of the rubidium atoms. The Larmor precession causes an ac rotation of the polarization of a separate probe beam; the polarization rotation frequency provides a measure of the magnetic field. An anti-relaxation coating on the walls of the atomic vapor cell results in a long lifetime of 56 ms for the alignment, which enables precise measurement of the precession frequency. Light is delivered to the magnetometer by polarization-maintaining optical fibers. Tests of the sensitivity include directly measuring the beat frequency between the magnetometer and a commercial instrument and measurements of Earth's field under magnetically quiet conditions, indicating a sensitivity of at least 5 pT/νHz. Rotating the sensor indicates a heading error of less than 1 nT, limited in part by residual magnetism of the sensor.