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Physical Review A

Localizing an atom via quantum interference

Emmanuel Paspalakis, P. L. Knight

Published May 10, 2001• 250 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that a three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atom interacting with a classical standing-wave field resonantly coupling one transition and a weak probe laser field resonantly coupling the second transition can be localized provided the population of the upper state is observed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.63.065802

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We show that a three-level \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ-type atom interacting with a classical standing-wave field resonantly coupling one transition and a weak probe laser field resonantly coupling the second transition can be localized provided the population of the upper state is observed.
Entanglement of the atom and field leads towards the measurement of the state of the atom or field depending on the kind of measurement made. Taking advantage of this fact, we propose spectroscopic methods for the single atom localization within the subwavelength domain of the optical standing wave field. \n \nWhen a two-level atom interacts with some intense radiation field the spectrum of the scattered light signal exhibits a three-peak Mollow spectrum. We propose a scheme of atom localization based on the resonance fluorescence from a two-level atom interacting with a standing wave field. The Rabi frequency is considered to be position dependent and therefore, the spontaneously emitted photon carries the information about the center-of-mass motion of the atom. This leads to the localization of the single atom by measuring the frequency of the spontaneously emitted photon even during the passage of the atom through the standing wave field. We predict a spatial resolution in position information of up to λ/60 where λ is the optical wavelength. \n \nDetuning of the coherent field with the atomic transition plays an important role in the characterization of the peaks present in the Autler- Townes spectrum of a three-level atom. Strong line narrowing is observed in one of the peaks of the Autler- Townes doublet depending on the choice of the detuning. We investigate how this detuning effects the position information of the atom inside the standing wave field in upper-level and lower-level coupling schemes of Autler- Townes microscopy. We show an enhancement in precision position measurement by factor of at least 4 in upper-level coupling scheme due to the quantum interference phenomenon. This enhancement is not observed in lower-level coupling scheme where the quantum interference is not taking place. \n \nWe also consider a system where a three-level atom is interacting with a monochromatic radiation field in such a way that the decay takes place from upper level to the intermediate level with a rate T and from intermediate level to lower level at a rate γ. This type of system exhibits a non stationary scattered light signal. We report the results of the spontaneous emission spectrum for non stationary scattered light signal by using the definition of time-dependent physical spectrum. This is a rare example of problems where time-dependent physical spectrum can be calculated exactly. We study the characteristics of the spontaneous spectrum for a resonant and off-resonant case and show that this physical spectrum recovers the results of earlier work quite successfully. We also show that the decay rate r disturbs the atomic coherence and finally eliminates the dark line from the center of the spontaneous spectrum. Here we only consider upper-level coupling case for the time-dependent spontaneous spectrum because in lower-level coupling case the system automatically evolved a pumping mechanism due to the coupling of ground level to the upper level via radiation field. Thus a steady-state limit exists in lower-level coupling scheme. \n \nWe investigate the phenomenon of atom localization by using the non stationary Autler-Townes microscopy. The decay rate T reduces the precision in position measurement which is consistent with the results of the non stationary spontaneous emission spectrum. This is due to the fact that for the upper-level coupling case, the standing wave field is coupled to atomic transition and it induces a coherence in the upper-level atomic transition but the spontaneous decay from the upper level to the intermediate level disturbs this coherence. When the effect of the spontaneous decay dominates the coherence effect the quantum interference phenomenon vanishes and thus the precision in localization reduces.
We propose a scheme to localize an atom in a three-level A-type configuration inside a classical standing wave field conditioned upon the measurement of frequency of a weak probe field. Inside the classical standing wave field, the interaction between atom and the field is position-dependent due to the Rabi frequency of the driving field; hence, as the absorption frequency of the probe field is measured, the position of an atom inside the classical standing wave field will be determined. Localizing of an atom via absorption spectrum occurs during its motion inside the standing wave field. An investigation of the probe field frequency shows that the degree of localization depends on interaction parameters such as detuning, phase difference between applied fields, and Rabi frequency of the driving field.
We propose a scheme of atom localization based on the interaction of the atom in the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ configuration with a strong bichromatic coupling field and a weak bichromatic probe field with equal frequency difference. One of the bichromatic coupling components is a standing-wave field, which imposes position information on the Rabi frequency. By varying the difference between the relative phases of the two bichromatic fields, the atom is localized in either of the two half-wavelength regions with 50% probability provided the population in the upper state is detected.
A scheme for one-dimensional localization of a three-level atom is proposed by employing a modified technique for the formation of a standing-wave regime using two standing-wave fields. In the present system, precise position information of the atom can be achieved by measuring the population of the excited state, which can be efficiently controlled by the symmetric and the asymmetric superpositions of two standing-wave fields in the presence of constructive quantum interference. Our results highlight that, depending upon the effect of asymmetric superposition, the proposed scheme may provide a promising way to obtain various types of single-peak and double-peak localizations of the atom either in a one-wavelength range or in a half-wavelength range with appropriate values of the Rabi frequencies, detunings and spatial phase shifts of the coupling fields.