We utilize a two-photon polarization spectroscopy technique to observe Ramsey fringes that appear due to light scattering by coherently prepared rubidium atoms. We examine the effect in a vapor cell for spatially and temporally separated laser fields. We present a theoretical interpretation of the experimental results.
We experimentally studied the temporal evolution of Zeeman electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonances induced by the laser resonant to hyperfine transition of 87Rb in a rubidium buffer gas cell. We simultaneously modulated the laser beam intensity and polarization to achieve the repeated interaction of the laser beam with coherently prepared atoms. Our cell was placed in a homogenous magnetic field to obtain the Larmor precession of the phase of coherences. The weak laser beam was used to probe the atoms at the end of the Ramsey sequence. We measured the transparency of the probe pulse at different magnetic fields for a given excitation pulse and the period of free evolution of Zeeman coherences in the dark. From these data, we reconstructed the temporal evolution of EIT resonances. The Ramsey fringes that appeared on the EIT curves at the beginning of the second probing pulse disappeared at later moments due to various decay processes.
We investigated effects of spatially separated laser fields on amplitudes and widths of electromagnetically induced transparency in M-type atomic system.We have shown narrowing of the electromagnetically induced transmission resonance and therefore enhancement of medium non-linearities that can be explained by diffusion-induced Ramsey narrowing.Depending on the polarization of two laser beams, narrow probe Hanle transmission resonance changes its sign in respect of the profile obtained when the pump laser beam is off.
Raman-Ramsey interference has proved a very effective technique to implement compact and high performing vapor cell frequency standards. In this paper, we theoretically characterize Raman-Ramsey resonances in an optically thick atomic vapor. Specifically, some parameters of interest for frequency standards applications, like contrast and linewidth of the central Raman-Ramsey fringe, are evaluated at different temperatures for 133Cs and 87Rb vapor cells with buffer gas. Density narrowing and broadening effects are described and explained in terms of a three-level theory where laser field propagation through the atomic medium is taken into account. Also, we investigate light shift both in low and high atomic density regimes. Light shift, which potentially degrades the medium- to long-term stability of Raman-Ramsey clocks, is composed of two contributions. The first is a pulling effect exerted by the wide Rabi profile enclosing the interference pattern on the central Raman-Ramsey fringe. The second light-shift term is strictly related to the detection time. Calculations derived from our model well describe already existing experimental results and new behaviors are predicted.
We report the observation of Raman-Ramsey fringes using a double lambda scheme creating coherent population trapping in an atomic ensemble combined with pulsed optical radiations. The observation was made in a Cs vapor mixed with N2 buffer gas in a closed cell. The double lambda scheme is created with lin perpendicular lin polarized laser beams leading to higher contrast than the usual simple lambda scheme. The pulsed trapping technique leads to narrow fringe widths scaling as 1/(2T) with high contrasts which are no longer limited by the saturation effect. This technique operates in a different way from the classical Ramsey sequence: the signal is done by applying a long trapping pulse to prepare the atomic state superposition, and fringe detection is accomplished by optical transmission during a short second trapping pulse without any perturbation of the dark state.