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Physical Review A

Observation of ground-state Zeeman coherences in the selective reflection from cesium vapor

Antoine Weis, Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Theodor W. Hänsch

Published Jun 1, 1992• 36 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report an observation of \ensuremath{\Delta}m=2 ground-state coherences in selective-reflection spectra at a glass--metal-vapor interface. The coherence was created by a linearly polarized laser beam tuned to a sub-Doppler resonance in the selective-reflection spectrum of the cesium ${\mathit{D}}_{2}$ line and detected through the magnetorotation of the plane of polarization of the reflected beam. The coherence effect appears as a dispersive shaped resonance of subnatural width. The dependence of the width on the intensity of the optical field shows a saturation behavior. For vanishing light intensity and cesium vapor pressure the linewidth is limited by transverse time-of-flight broadening, whereas its pressure dependence indicates an additional contribution from the finite longitudinal interaction time.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.45.7991

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We report an observation of \ensuremath{\Delta}m=2 ground-state coherences in selective-reflection spectra at a glass--metal-vapor interface. The coherence was created by a linearly polarized laser beam tuned to a sub-Doppler resonance in the selective-reflection spectrum of the cesium D2{\mathit{D}}_{2}D2​ line and detected through the magnetorotation of the plane of polarization of the reflected beam. The coherence effect appears as a dispersive shaped resonance of subnatural width. The dependence of the width on the intensity of the optical field shows a saturation behavior. For vanishing light intensity and cesium vapor pressure the linewidth is limited by transverse time-of-flight broadening, whereas its pressure dependence indicates an additional contribution from the finite longitudinal interaction time.
We report on the spectroscopy in a resonant vapor film, in a regime in which the inhomogeneous transit time induces a velocity selection. For cell thickness (10--1000 \ensuremath{\mu}m) smaller than the transverse dimensions and for low enough atomic density, the atomic trajectories are essentially free flights from wall to wall. Hence, a single laser beam irradiation is sufficient to observe sub-Doppler resonances because of the transient atomic response, which enhances the response of the slowest atoms flying nearly parallel to the wall. The peculiar features of this velocity selection are presented in the linear regime as well as in the case of saturation induced by the optical pumping. Also, we report, in the case of the Cs D2{D}_{2}D2​ line (852 nm), on the passage from a two-level linear-response regime to an optical pumping regime when increasing the incident intensity. We also describe the influence of several other parameters, including cell thickness and laser beam size and shape, on the experimental line shapes. An extension to Doppler-free polarization spectroscopy in a thin cell with a single beam, and to saturated absorption, is also reported.
Coherent spectroscopy of degenerate two-level systems of the Doppler-broadened D2{D}_{2}D2​ cesium line has been performed in vacuum and in buffer gas cells. Subnatural-width (SNW) electromagnetically induced transparency and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) resonances have been observed with single-frequency laser excitation for different light polarizations and collision regimes. SNW-EIA resonances with linearly polarized excitation of the Fg=4{F}_{g}=4Fg​=4 level are observed, and they increase their contrast with power density increase and reach a contrast of 20% at $200 \mathrm{mW}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}.$ A theoretical model has been elaborated, taking into account the Doppler broadening of the transitions, the linewidth of the laser light, and the experimental conditions for observation of the fluorescence. Here the theoretical results are in agreement with those of the experiment. In a buffer gas cell, the SNW resonances in the fluorescence, in degenerate two-level systems are observed for the first time and they are only obtained with circularly polarized light. A theoretical explanation of this result is proposed. At the expense of contrast, in the presence of a buffer gas the coherent resonances are significantly narrower than in a vacuum cell for the same power density. The observation of SNW resonances in buffer gas is significantly less sensitive to the laser frequency drift than in a vacuum cell, which could be advantageous for applications in metrology and in the measurement of weak magnetic fields.
Abstract Coherent narrow resonances in a homogeneously broadened contour of selective reflection from the interface between a cell window and high-density atomic rubidium vapor, where the dipole broadening greatly exceeds the Doppler width of the unresolved components of rubidium D2 line, are discussed. The formation of coherent resonances is caused by the coherent scattering of probe and pump optical fields from the oscillations of populations of the ground and excited states of atoms at the beat frequency. The width of each resonance depends on the population difference decay rate. Within a simple model conditions are found for observing resonances with a Lorentzian spectral profile. The experimentally recorded coherent resonances are described by a Lorentz function with fitting parameters in the form of amplitude, width, and spectral baseline. In the limit of zero optical saturation the measured half-width of a coherent resonance (HWHM) γres/2π is about 52 MHz, which greatly exceeds the radiative decay rate of the rubidium excited state 5P3/2.
We present an experimental study of nonlinear selective reflection at a dielectric--Cs-vapor interface, in a three-level cascade-up scheme. The nonlinear reflection at the Cs D2{\mathit{D}}_{2}D2​ resonance line is monitored in the presence of resonant irradiation at 621 nm or 658 nm (6P3/2{\mathit{P}}_{3/2}P3/2​\ensuremath{\rightarrow}8D5/2{\mathit{D}}_{5/2}D5/2​,9S1/2{\mathit{S}}_{1/2}S1/2​). Experimental reflection spectra with either counterpropagating or copropagating light beams are analyzed and compared with the theoretical predictions of F. Schuller et al. [Phys. Rev. A 47, 519 (1993)]. For a blue-detuned pump and copropagating geometry an alternative type of three-level coherent reflection resonances, specifically associated with desorbing atoms, is observed. Also observed is the nonlinear reflection associated with the off-resonant, two-photon dispersion of atoms moving parallel to the window surface. Probe beam saturation is responsible for the appearance of additional resonant features in reflection spectra. Finally we analyze crossover spectral resonances which arise from nondegenerate, four-wave-mixing processes induced by the combined influence of counterpropagating pump and probe beams, and the pump beam being partially reflected by the window.
Near-resonant four-wave light mixing in Na vapor with inert buffer gases reveals collision-induced coherences when the difference frequency between two incident light beams equals the hyperfine splitting or the Zeeman splitting between two states of the 32S3^{2}S32S ground-state manifold. The Doppler broadening of the corresponding resonances decreases with increasing buffer-gas pressure. The width of the resonances becomes significantly narrower than the spontaneous linewidth of the near-resonant intermediate state and is determined by spin-exchange collisions between ground-state atoms. The dependence of the intensity of these collision-induced resonances on buffer-gas pressure and detuning from one-photon resonances is measured. Selection rules for various polarizations of the incident light fields and directions of an externally applied magnetic field are established.
We calculate the reflection coefficient for a light beam incident on the interface between a dielectric and a resonant atomic vapor to first order in the dipole polarization in the vapor. The angle of incidence and the polarization direction are chosen arbitrarily, and saturation is fully accounted for. The atoms are supposed to get deexcited at collisions with the surface. The resulting transient behavior of atoms leaving the surface is responsible for a nonlocal response. This spatial dispersion near the surface is known to produce a natural-linewidth-limited resonance in the vapor reflection coefficient at normal incidence. Our analysis shows that this sub-Doppler structure is broadened by the residual Doppler effect for non-normal incidence. This structure disappears at the critical angle for total internal reflection, where one predicts a conventional Voigt-type dispersion response, based on the complex-refractive-index approach. We also calculate the saturation broadening of the atomic response for large intensities. Beyond the critical angle, the spectral response suddenly shifts from dispersion to absorption line shapes. In the case of total internal reflection, the spatial dispersion leads to an additional Lorentzian broadening, which results from an effective imaginary Doppler shift at passage through the evanescent wave (transit-time broadening).