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Journal of the Optical Society of America

Polarization properties of resonance fluorescence

L. Mandeļ

Published Oct 1, 1981• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The polarization matrix is calculated for the far field of the fluorescence produced by a two-level atom excited by coherent light. The fluorescence is always polarized in a polarized applied field and has linear or elliptic polarization according to whether the atomic transition is of Δm = 0 or Δm = ±1 type. In a partially polarized applied field, the fluorescence is also partially polarized but with a different degree of polarization in general.

DOI
10.1364/josa.71.001273

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The polarization matrix is calculated for the far field of the fluorescence produced by a two-level atom excited by coherent light. The fluorescence is always polarized in a polarized applied field and has linear or elliptic polarization according to whether the atomic transition is of Δm = 0 or Δm = ±1 type. In a partially polarized applied field, the fluorescence is also partially polarized but with a different degree of polarization in general.
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A treatment of resonance fluorescence is given in which the properties of the incident and scattered light are expressed in terms of coherency matrices. Calculations are made for two successive scattering processes corresponding to the experiments described in an accompanying paper. For the first process the scattering atoms are subjected to a magnetic field consisting of parallel static and oscillating components. The fluorescent light is frequency-modulated and may also be polarization-modulated. This light excites fluorescence in a second cell in which the atoms are subjected to a static magnetic field. The equations show under what conditions the second fluorescence is intensity-modulated and describe the resonances in the amplitude of modulation which occur when the modulation frequency matches a Zeeman interval of the excited atoms.
The calculation is given of the spectral distribution of resonance fluorescence from an atom that is driven near a j=12j=\frac{1}{2}j=21​ to j=12j=\frac{1}{2}j=21​ transition by a monochromatic, xxx-polarized electric field and that is subject to radiation damping only. In accordance with Mollow's results for a two-level system, the power spectrum of the scattered radiation corresponding to the xxx component of the dipole moment contains a coherent part for all driving-field intensities. The coherent part is absent in the fluorescence radiation corresponding to the yyy and zzz components of the dipole moment. For weak driving fields all power scattered by these latter components is present in a narrow Lorentzian. Consistent with energy conservation, the width of the Lorentzian corresponds to the probability of excitation of the atom out of its ground level due to the presence of the driving field. For strong driving fields the power spectra corresponding to the xxx component and to the yyy or zzz component mainly differ in the heights and widths of their central incoherent band and their Rabi-precession-frequency-shifted side bands.
The polarization of the resonance fluorescence of interacting atoms and the transfer of coherence, due to the exchange of excitation, are studied theoretically. The treatment is for the general case where both the excited and the ground states can have arbitrary angular momenta, except that they can be connected to each other by an allowed transition. Electrostatic dipole–dipole interaction and electromagnetic radiative interaction are considered simultaneously as the perturbations on the system. Heitler and Ma's generalized time-dependent perturbation method is used. The system is quantized with respect to the space-fixed z axis and a static magnetic field along the z axis may be present, so that the magnetic sublevels (m, m′, etc., for the excited state J, and α, β, etc., for the ground state J′) are not necessarily degenerate. The intensity of the scattered light of a given polarization, in a given direction, is expressed as a function of kR (where ℏck is the energy of excitation and R is the internuclear distance), and of the orientation of R with respect to z axis. The matrix elements (ℏ / 2)γmβ,αm′ and Vmβ,αm′, which cause resonant transfer of excitation between two atoms through radiative and electrostatic interaction, respectively, are also expressed as a function of kR, and of the orientation of R. For randomly oriented atoms, the polarization after being averaged over the random orientation of R becomes a function of kR. Numerical calculations have been carried out for S01 → 1P1 transition. The coherence is shown to be conserved upon resonant transfer of excitation when R is parallel to the quantization axis.
A simple physical model is presented which explains the asymmetry recently predicted in the fluorescence spectra from a two-level atom driven slightly off resonance by a partially coherent field. The asymmetry is due to a continuing reinitiation of the transient response of the atom as its dipole moment tries to settle down to a steady-state phase relation with the fluctuating applied field. A Lorentz-model calculation based on this idea is able to give a qualitative explanation of the spectra at all field strengths, and a quantitative explanation of the low-intensity spectra. The predicted spectra are compared with those recently derived by Kimble and Mandel.
Equations are derived for the atomic density matrix and relaxation operator for a broadband squeezed field in an arbitrary polarization state and resonance atomic energy levels with an arbitrary degree of degeneracy. It is shown that suppression of the relaxation of the quadrature component of the atomic polarization depends strongly on the type of resonance transition and the polarization state of the squeezed and coherent perturbing fields. When the resonance levels are strongly degenerate, the relaxation of the quadrature component of the atomic polarization under conditions of maximum suppression is nonexponential in character. The mathematical apparatus developed here makes it possible to calculate polarization-related aspects of the multifrequency optical behavior of atomic and molecular systems resonantly excited both by coherent light and by broadband squeezed fields.