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Physica Scripta

Lifetimes of highly excited atomic states

Houcem Jabri, Hichem Eleuch, Tahar Djerad

Published Mar 15, 2006• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider a highly excited atom in a good cavity strongly pumped by coherent light. We derive the autocorrelation function of the field emergent from the cavity. We show that the autocorrelation function can be expressed in terms of the atomic dissipation rate. In order to distinguish between the resonant and the non-resonant case, we introduce a parameter interpreted as the measure of the relative detuning between the pump laser and the excited atom frequency. By selecting the parameter time, we determine the lifetime of the excited atom. This method constitutes an interesting alternative for internal atomic parameter determination.

DOI
10.1088/0031-8949/73/4/015

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We consider a highly excited atom in a good cavity strongly pumped by coherent light. We derive the autocorrelation function of the field emergent from the cavity. We show that the autocorrelation function can be expressed in terms of the atomic dissipation rate. In order to distinguish between the resonant and the non-resonant case, we introduce a parameter interpreted as the measure of the relative detuning between the pump laser and the excited atom frequency. By selecting the parameter time, we determine the lifetime of the excited atom. This method constitutes an interesting alternative for internal atomic parameter determination.
We considered the excitation spectra for the excited states of a three-level atom, where the strong and the weak atomic transitions are driven by resonant and nonresonant laser fields, respectively. The spectral functions describing the excitation spectra for the electric dipole allowed excited state and for the metastable state of the atom have been derived when both laser fields are quantized as well as when they are treated as classical entities. In the low-intensity limit of the laser field operating in the strong transition, there are two short-lifetime excitations, the spontaneous one and the induced one, which appear at the same frequency, and a long-lifetime excitation induced by the weak laser field. These excitations compete with each other at resonance as well as at finite detunings of the weak laser field. In the high-intensity limit of the laser field operating in the strong transition, the competition is between the short- and the long-lifetime side bands, which are induced by the strong and the weak laser fields, respectively. The ratio of the maximum intensities of the peaks describing the long- and the short-lifetime excitations exhibits a resonance variation with the detuning of the weak laser field. Comparison between the results obtained when the laser fields are treated as quantized and as classical entities is made.
Quality factor of up to 4/spl times/10/sup 10/, corresponding to an average lifetime of a photon in the cavity of 0.3 s, are achieved. The photon lifetime is thus much longer than the interaction time of an atom with the maser field. The atoms used are rubidium Rydberg atoms pumped by laser excitation into the upper maser level, 63P/sub 3/2/, the lower maser level is either the 61D/sub 5/2/ or the 61D/sub 3/2/ depending on the cavity frequency. The atom field dynamics is observed by measuring the atoms in the upper or lower maser levels after the cavity. During the interaction the field in the cavity consists only of single or a few photons, nevertheless, it is possible to study the interaction in detail.
Numerical calculations are presented for the interference spectra of a laser-excited three-level atom, where the strong and the weak atomic transitions are driven by resonant and nonresonant laser fields, respectively. The spectral functions describing the interference spectra for the electric dipole allowed excited state have been considered in the low- and high-intensity limit of the laser field operating in the strong transition. The interference spectra arise from the competition between short-lifetime spontaneous processes and short- and long-lifetime excitations induced by the strong and the weak laser fields, respectively. Both laser fields have been treated as quantized and as classical entities. The computed spectra have been presented graphically for different values of the Rabi frequencies and detunings of the weak laser field. It is shown that the decrease in the intensity of the short-lifetime excitation may provide a measure of the spectral width of the long-lifetime excitation.
We study a single incoherently pumped atom moving within an optical high-QQQ resonator in the strong-coupling regime. Using a semiclassical description for the atom and field dynamics, we derive a closed system of differential equations to describe this coupled atom-field dynamics. For sufficiently strong pumping, the system starts lasing when the atom gets close to a field antinode, and the associated light forces provide for self-trapping of the atom. For a cavity mode blue detuned with respect to the atomic transition frequency, this is combined with cavity-induced motional cooling, allowing for long-term steady-state operation of such a laser. The analytical results for temperature and field statistics agree well with our earlier predictions based on quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We find sub-Doppler temperatures that decrease with gain and coupling strength, and can even go beyond the limit of passive cavity cooling. Besides demonstrating the importance of light forces in single-atom lasers, this result also gives strong evidence to enhance laser cooling through stimulated emission in resonators.
The spectral properties of an incoherently pumped one-atom laser operating in a regime of strong coupling are studied. The spectrum of the field outgoing from the cavity, the spectrum of resonance fluorescence of an atom, and the spectrum of the atom—field cross-correlation function are numerically calculated. Relations between the parameters of the system for which spectral lines corresponding to eigenstates of the Jaynes—Cummings Hamiltonian are resolved are found. A method for determining the widths of resonances from the spectrum of the atom—field cross-correlation function is proposed, and a procedure for measuring this function using spectroscopy of intensity fluctuations is described.