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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Collapse and revival of a Dicke-type coherent narrowing in a sub-micron thick vapor cell transmission spectroscopy

G. Dutier, Alexander Yarovitski, Solomon M. Saltiel, A. Papoyan, David G. Sarkisyan, Daniel Bloch, M. Ducloy

Published Jul 1, 2003• 120 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In a thin cell of dilute vapour, the absorption spectrum exhibits sub-Doppler features due to the relative enhancement of the slow atom contribution, with respect to the transient nature of the interaction with moving atoms. For a two-level system in the linear regime, the narrowest response is predicted to be found for a λ/2 thickness, as an effect of the coherent character of the dipole response as early described by Romer and Dicke ( Phys. Rev. , 99 (1955) 532) in the microwave regime. We report here on the direct observation of this effect in the optical regime in an ultra-thin vapour cell. This effect is shown to vanish for a thickness equal to λ, and a revival is observed at 3λ/2, as expected from the predicted λ-periodicity. The experiment is performed on the D 1 resonance line of Cs vapour (λ = 894 nm), in a specially designed cell, whose thickness varies locally.

DOI
10.1209/epl/i2003-00474-0

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Physical Review A•May 1, 1999•87 citations
In a thin cell of dilute vapour, the absorption spectrum exhibits sub-Doppler features due to the relative enhancement of the slow atom contribution, with respect to the transient nature of the interaction with moving atoms. For a two-level system in the linear regime, the narrowest response is predicted to be found for a λ/2 thickness, as an effect of the coherent character of the dipole response as early described by Romer and Dicke ( Phys. Rev. , 99 (1955) 532) in the microwave regime. We report here on the direct observation of this effect in the optical regime in an ultra-thin vapour cell. This effect is shown to vanish for a thickness equal to λ, and a revival is observed at 3λ/2, as expected from the predicted λ-periodicity. The experiment is performed on the D 1 resonance line of Cs vapour (λ = 894 nm), in a specially designed cell, whose thickness varies locally.
Single light beam transmission spectroscopy in an ultrathin dilute vapor cell (10--100 \ensuremath{\mu}m) reveals sub-Doppler features. Indeed, atoms with fast (normal) velocity undergo a short interaction between the cell walls, and are shown to be less absorbing because they have not reached their steady state of interaction with light. The effect is observed in the linear-response regime with a simple two-level system, as ensured from the ultralow level of light irradiation ($<~1\ensuremath{\mu}{\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{2}$ for the Cs D2{D}_{2}D2​ line). The effect, known for a long time in the microwave domain, is demonstrated here in the optical domain, and is extended to cell thicknesses large relative to the optical wavelength.
We compare the behavior of absorption and of resonance fluorescence spectra in an extremely thin Rb vapor cell as a function of the ratio of $L∕\ensuremath{\lambda}$, with LLL the cell thickness $(L\ensuremath{\sim}150--1800\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm})$ and $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ the wavelength of the Rb D2{D}_{2}D2​ line $(\ensuremath{\lambda}=780\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mn})$. The Dicke-type coherent narrowing [G. Dutier et al., Europhys. Lett. 63, 35 (2003)] is observed only in transmission measurements, in the linear regime, with its typical collapse and revival, which reaches a maximum for $L=(2n+1)\ensuremath{\lambda}∕2$ (nnn integer). It is shown not to appear in fluorescence, whose behavior-amplitude, and spectral width, is more monotonic with LLL. Conversely, at high-intensity, the sub-Doppler saturation effects are shown to be the most visible in transmission around $L=n\ensuremath{\lambda}$.
Abstract A nanometer-thin cell (in the direction of laser beam propagation) has been elaborated with the thickness of the atomic vapor column varying smoothly in the range of . The cell allows one to study the behavior of the resonance absorption over the D 1 line of potassium atoms by varying the laser intensity and the cell thickness (from to with the step where is the resonant wavelength of the laser). It is shown that despite the huge Doppler broadening ( at the cell temperature ), at low laser intensities a narrowing of the resonance absorption spectrum is observed for ( at FWHM) and , whereas for and the spectrum broadens. At moderate laser intensities narrowband velocity selective optical pumping (VSOP) resonances appear at and with the linewidth close to the natural one. A comparison with saturated absorption spectra obtained in a 1.4 cm-sized K cell is presented. The developed theoretical model well describes the experiment.
We report on high-resolution single-light-beam transmission spectroscopy through an ultra thin vapor cell (thickness 10–100 μm). In addition to the expected Doppler-broadened absorption, a novel sub-Doppler structure is observed under normal incidence irradiation. This structure originates from the optical response of atoms with very small velocity components perpendicular to the cell walls, and is connected with the transient atom excitation regime during the wall-to-wall time of flight. In experiments performed in Cs vapor, the slow mechanism of optical pumping leads, for weak light intensities (10–100 μW/cm 2 ) and a 10 μm cell, to a velocity selection equivalent to an effective 1D temperature in the sub-mK range.
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.