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Physical Review A

Direct detection of evanescent electromagnetic waves at a planar dielectric surface by laser atomic spectroscopy

Tatsuo Matsudo, Hirokazu Hori, Tetsuya Inoue, H. Iwata, Yukio Inoue, Takeki Sakurai

Published Mar 1, 1997• 44 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The penetration depth and pseudomomentum (wave vector) of evanescent electromagnetic waves are measured at a planar dielectric surface by means of laser spectroscopy using the Cs ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}$ line with a wavelength of 852.1 nm. The same experimental setup is employed in all the experiments. The first result shows a sharp, asymmetric absorption profile, which is explained in terms of the thin penetration depth, and the second shows an actual transfer of the pseudomomentum of the surface electromagnetic mode to atoms via a resonance interaction. The measured penetration depth and pseudomomentum agree with the natural interpretation of the complex wave number characterizing evanescent waves at a planar dielectric-vapor interface. Direct excitation of evanescent waves by excited Cs atoms has also been observed as atomic fluorescence emitted into the dielectric material at the angle of total internal reflection. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions and exhibit the characteristics of excitation transfer or tunneling from Cs atoms into the surface mode.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.55.2406

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Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Nov 1, 2001•15 citations
The penetration depth and pseudomomentum (wave vector) of evanescent electromagnetic waves are measured at a planar dielectric surface by means of laser spectroscopy using the Cs D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​ line with a wavelength of 852.1 nm. The same experimental setup is employed in all the experiments. The first result shows a sharp, asymmetric absorption profile, which is explained in terms of the thin penetration depth, and the second shows an actual transfer of the pseudomomentum of the surface electromagnetic mode to atoms via a resonance interaction. The measured penetration depth and pseudomomentum agree with the natural interpretation of the complex wave number characterizing evanescent waves at a planar dielectric-vapor interface. Direct excitation of evanescent waves by excited Cs atoms has also been observed as atomic fluorescence emitted into the dielectric material at the angle of total internal reflection. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions and exhibit the characteristics of excitation transfer or tunneling from Cs atoms into the surface mode.
Selective reflection spectroscopy at an interface with a low-density resonant vapor, especially when combined with a frequency modulation technique, is a high-resolution Doppler-free tool for probing atoms interacting with a surface. We analyze different types of relevant surface interaction, emphasizing the spectral consequences of a van der Waals surface attraction associated to a z−3z^{-3}z−3 potential dependence (zzz: distance to the wall). We present detailed results of two series of experiments at a Cs vapor/dielectric window interface on the 6S1/2_{1/2}1/2​-6P3/2_{3/2}3/2​ (λ=852\lambda = 852λ=852 nm) resonance line and on the 6S1/2_{1/2}1/2​-7P second resonance line (λ=455\lambda = 455λ=455 nm and 459 nm). Lineshape analysis at various pressures consistently shows that a van der Waals-type surface attraction has to be considered to interpret strong lineshape distortions and resonance shift. The attractive strengths are found to be equal respectively to ≈2\approx 2≈2 kHz μ\muμm3^33 and ≈20\approx 20≈20 kHz μ\muμm3^33, independently of the considered hyperfine component, within the experimental accuracy. It yields also typical parameters of pressure broadening and shift, which are shown to originate in collisional processes, at densities where the medium is opaque. Theoretical expectations for the VW strength are discussed on the basis of the results of atomic theory. The predicted values are smaller, by a typical factor of 2, than those deduced from the experiments. The validity of the theory, when applied to a dielectric interface, is discussed and seems questionable when the frequency of virtual atomic transitions involved in the van der Waals attraction potential lies in the dielectric window absorption range.
Using a cw dye laser beam normally incident on a glass-Na-vapor interface, fluorescence excitation spectra of the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line are measured. By observing the fluorescence transmitted into the glass above the angle of total reflection, only evanescent light emitted within about a wavelength distance from the interface is observed. The measured spectra show a cutoff on the high-frequency side which is direct evidence for the transient behavior of the induced polarization of resonantly excited vapor atoms which have collided at the solid interface.
Summary form only given. Reflection spectroscopy at a dielectric/atomic vapor interface allows one to study the properties of atoms close to a surface, within a depth of the order of the optical wavelength. We report on the use of evanescent wave spectroscopy to determine the temperature dependence of the adsorption time of Cs atoms on the pyrex window of an ordinary optical cell. Saturated absorption (SA) spectroscopy in a vapor is known to be a velocity selective technique, yielding Doppler-free spectra. In the presence of velocity changing collisions, SA spectroscopy can also provide information on the velocity redistribution (the collision kernel) provided that the pumping effect has not been totally washed out in the course of the collisional process.
Non-intrusive laser-spectroscopical methods for the diagnostics of the gas-surface interaction in the near-field of a dielectric surface have been developed both experimentally and theoretically. The techniques base on either two-photon evanescent wave excitation or combined evanescent-volume wave excitation. Spectra obtained for sodium atoms at a glass-vacuum interface are quantitatively reproduced by a rigorous theoretical approach. In the case of pure evanescent wave excitation the excitation conditions can be chosen such that either the velocity distribution of desorbing atoms is determined or that atom-surface interaction parameters (polarizability of the adsorbed atoms, desorption rate, sticking coefficient) are obtained from the Autler- Townes splitting of the two-photon lines. By the use of combined evanescent-volume wave excitation one is able to distinguish optically between different groups of atoms interacting with the surface and one can extract their two- dimensional velocity distributions. In addition, information is obtained about superelastic scattering of the atoms interacting with the dielectric substrate.
We experimentally demonstrate hyperfine optical pumping of rubidium atoms probed by an evanescent electromagnetic field at a dielectric-vapor interface. This light-atom interaction at the nanoscale is investigated using a right angle prism integrated with a vapor cell and excited by evanescent wave under total internal reflection. An efficient hyperfine optical pumping, leading to almost complete suppression of absorption on the probed evanescent signal, is observed when a pump laser beam is sent at normal incidence to the interface. In contrast, when the pump and probe beams are co-propagating in the integrated prism-vapor cell, no clear evidence of optical pumping is observed. The experimental results are supported by a detailed model based on the optical Bloch equation of a four atomic-level structure, which also includes a treatment of transit relaxation and wall collision with relaxation rates that were obtained directly from the thermal velocities of the atoms and the penetration depth of the evanescent wave. The obtained highly efficient optical pumping at the nanoscale is regarded as an important step in the quest for applications such as optical switching, magnetometry, and quantum memory.
New experimental results and new phenomena related to the study of the retrofluorescence spectrum induced by a diode laser at the interface between glass and cesium vapor are presented. The Cs 62P3/2(Fe) hyperfine states are populated with a low-intensity tunable diode laser with a 10-MHz spectral bandwidth. We report an integrated atomic retrofluorescence spectrum in the 852.2-nm (62P3/2–62S1/2) resonance line and 917.2-nm (62D5/2–62P3/2) line generated by energy-pooling collisions. Emission spectra of the molecular fluorescence signal have been observed. At the resonance line a large proportion of the atoms excited by the laser are located in the vicinity of the surface. The interactions between the excited atomic 62P3/2 state and the surface appear as a spectral inhibition of the integrated retrofluorescence spectrum for both the atomic line and the molecular band. This spectral inhibition indicates that the nonradiative transformation process of changing atomically excited energy into thermal energy is preferred. We report the analysis of the dominant processes in the vicinity of the 852.2-nm resonance line, which can influence the retrofluorescence hyperfine spectrum at the boundary between the glass window and the saturated cesium vapor. Only the nonradiative transfer by evanescent waves toward the dissipative surface is retained. Using this mechanism, we formulate, for the first time to our knowledge, a simple model of a backscattered hyperfine fluorescence signal. The glass–vapor interface is considered as two distinct regions: a wavelength-thickness vapor layer joined to the surface and a more remote vapor region. The first region is analyzed as a spectral filter that annihilates the absorbed photons and the second one as a rich spectral light source. The experimental setup is described, and measured integrated retrofluorescence spectra are compared with predictions made by the model. The consistency between theory and experiment is remarkably good considering that the model depends only on two unknown parameters: the nonradiative transfer rate and the absorption shape line of the filtering region.