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Physical Review A

Nonlinear effects in optical pumping of a cold and slow atomic beam

N. Porfido, Nikolai N. Bezuglov, Martins Bruvelis, Gholamreza Shayeganrad, Simone Birindelli, Francesco Tantussi, Irene Guerri, Matthieu Viteau, A. Fioretti, Donatella Ciampini, M. Allegrini, D. Comparat, E. Arimondo, Aigars Ekers, F. Fuso

Published Oct 12, 2015• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

By photoionizing hyperfine (HF) levels of the Cs state $6{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{P}_{3/2}$ in a slow and cold atom beam, we find how their population depends on the excitation laser power. The long time (around $180\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s})$ spent by the slow atoms inside the resonant laser beam is large enough to enable exploration of a unique atom-light interaction regime heavily affected by time-dependent optical pumping. We demonstrate that, under such conditions, the onset of nonlinear effects in the population dynamics and optical pumping occurs at excitation laser intensities much smaller than the conventional respective saturation values. The evolution of population within the HF structure is calculated by numerical integration of the multilevel optical Bloch equations. The agreement between numerical results and experiment outcomes is excellent. All main features in the experimental findings are explained by the occurrence of ``dark'' and ``bright'' resonances leading to power-dependent branching coefficients.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.043408

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T. Ya. Karagodova, Anna V. Kuptsova

The interaction of high power laser radiation with the atoms in the external magnetic field leads to the new nonlinear effects due to modifications of populations of the states of the system 'atom plus field.' From one side it can be followed by new peculiarities in the effect of the coherent population trapping and from other -- the effects of the population modifications are important for explanation of regularities of nonlinear magneto-optical effects. The modification of population dynamics due to the parameters of the system -- radiation field intensities, detunings, polarizations, magnetic field strength and orientation, relaxation constants leads to the new features in polarization effects, resonant fluorescence and resonant Raman effects. The new features of the considered theory are that it is built for multilevel atoms and has not restrictions on the probe intensity compared to the pump intensity. The theory and method permit to investigate the populations modifications depending on modifications of the parameters of the system and to find the relation between population dynamics and new nonlinear resonant magneto-optical effects. The considered system consists of atomic gas of low concentration in the constant magnetic field and two monochromatic laser fields of different intensities and polarizations. Analytically the influence of magnetic field on population dynamics of three-level systems have been considered. For real multilevel atom the computer simulations show the dependence of population dynamics on relaxation constants and the differences of this dynamics for different magnetic sublevels of the excited states of the atom. The results agree with known theoretical and experimental works.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Oct 21, 1998•0 citations
By photoionizing hyperfine (HF) levels of the Cs state 62P3/26{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{P}_{3/2}62P3/2​ in a slow and cold atom beam, we find how their population depends on the excitation laser power. The long time (around 180\ensuremathμs)180\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s})180\ensuremathμs) spent by the slow atoms inside the resonant laser beam is large enough to enable exploration of a unique atom-light interaction regime heavily affected by time-dependent optical pumping. We demonstrate that, under such conditions, the onset of nonlinear effects in the population dynamics and optical pumping occurs at excitation laser intensities much smaller than the conventional respective saturation values. The evolution of population within the HF structure is calculated by numerical integration of the multilevel optical Bloch equations. The agreement between numerical results and experiment outcomes is excellent. All main features in the experimental findings are explained by the occurrence of dark'' and bright'' resonances leading to power-dependent branching coefficients.
The time-dependent population dynamics of hyperfine (HF) levels of n 2 p 3/2 states is examined for cyclic transitions in alkali atoms. We study a slow and cold atomic beam of Na (n = 3) and Cs (n = 6), taking into account the long interaction time of light with atoms (~200 μs) inside the resonant laser beam. Simple analytical expressions for the populations of the excited states and for the intensities of the absorption lines are derived for a three-level system model. We show that at moderate pump laser power the mixing of HF levels is sufficient to form a flow of population from a cyclic transition to partially open transitions. We discuss various phenomena associated with the evolution of optical pumping that cannot be explained by general analysis of two-level system model.
The time-dependent population dynamics of hyperfine (HF) sublevels of n 2 p 3 / 2 atomic states upon laser excitation in a cold medium of alkali atoms is examined. We demonstrate some peculiarities of the absorption HF multiplet formation in D2-line resulting from a long interaction time (∼200 μ s) interaction between light and Na ( n = 3 ) and Cs ( n = 6 ) atoms in a cold and slow sub-thermal ( T ∼ 1 K) beam. We analytically describe a number of D2-line-shape effects that are of interest in spectroscopic studies of cold dusty white dwarfs: broadening by optical pumping, intensity redistribution within components of D2-line HF multiplet for partially closed transitions and asymmetry of absorption lines induced by AC Stark shifts for cyclic transitions.
The ground electronic state of even such simple atoms as those of alkali elements has the set of sublevels. These sublevels are hyperfine (HF) components and magnetic sublevels. The collisions with particles of nonmagnetic buffer gas or even with walls (when walls have proper coating) do not mix practically the populations of ground state HF sublevels, if the orbital moment of electrons in the ground state is equal to zero. Due to this reason these sublevels may be extremely long lived. Because of this, for instance, the so-called effects of optical orientation and optical pumping are apparent in atoms of alkali metals. The radiation can pump practically all the atoms (with which there is effective interaction) to a single HF component. In a situation in which optical pumping is a minor effect, the monochromatic absorption line consists of separate lines corresponding to intra-atomic transitions. The optical pumping is not significant, for example, if the radiation intensity is so low that now pumping between HF sublevels occurs in the time it takes the atom to traverse the light beam. Under the conditions of optical pumping and when other nonlinear effects are present, the absorption line profile can undergo considerable alteration. Many theoretical and experimental investigations have been done in the laser spectroscopy of resonant transitions of atoms (atoms of alkali metals) under the conditions of optical pumping within ground state HF structure. A characteristic feature of all such investigations is the velocity-selective excitation of absorbing atoms. Also, as a rule, the value of HF splitting is not very big in comparison to Doppler broadening in these experiments. Under such conditions, the absorption spectra consists of Doppler- broadened lines with nonlinear resonances, which emerge when two fields of different frequencies or different propagation directions are employed. When only one monochromatic traveling wave is employed, optical pumping leads to formation of a single smooth absorption line occupying a position between the resonant transitions frequencies associated with HF components. As HF splitting grows, the line profile remains smooth, its width is approximately equal to the size of the HF splitting. The strength of the optical pumping from one ground state HF component to another is greater for greater HF splitting in comparison to the Doppler width. In this regard, Cs and Rb are the most typical of the alkali atoms (the HF splitting exceeds the Doppler width by a factor close to 20). This is the qualitative picture of the absorption line profile (particularly for a monochromatic radiation) under the conditions of optical pumping between the HF sublevels of the electronic ground state, this qualitative picture had formed by now.
We have performed quantitative measurements of the variation of the on-resonance absorption coefficients ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{0}$ of the four hyperfine components of the Cs D1{D}_{1}D1​ transition as a function of laser power PPP, for pumping with linearly and with circularly polarized light. Sublevel populations derived from rate equations assuming isotropic population relaxation (at a rate ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{1}$) yield algebraic ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{0}(P)$ dependences that do not reproduce the experimental findings from Cs vapor in a paraffin-coated cell. However, numerical results that consider spin-exchange relaxation (at a rate ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathrm{se}}$) and isotropic relaxation fit the experimental data perfectly well. The fit parameters, viz., the absolute value of ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{0}$, the optical pumping saturation power Psat{P}_{\mathrm{sat}}Psat​, and the ratio ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathrm{se}}/{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{1}$, are well described by the experimental conditions and yield absolute values for ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{1}$ and ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathrm{se}}$. The latter is consistent with the previously published Cs-Cs spin-exchange relaxation cross section.
Rubidium vapor cells play a key role in contemporary quantum optics since they have strong nonlinear interactions with a low-power incident laser light. The simplest nonlinear interaction is the Kerr effect. Although most calculations concentrate on the unsaturated Kerr effect, the saturated Kerr effect has been measured in many materials including 85Rb and 87Rb vapor. Moreover, entanglement-generating vapor cells often operate in the saturated regime. Here, the calculation of the saturated Kerr effect for rubidium vapor at the D2 line uses a density matrix formulation that includes two hyperfine-split levels and all magnetic sublevels in each of the ground and excited states to account for incomplete optical pumping: the transit time of the atoms through the beam is too short to reach a final population distribution. The calculation shows a rapid qualitative change at low optical power, in semiquantitative agreement with experimental data.
The interaction of high power laser radiation with the atoms in the external magnetic field leads to the new nonlinear effects due to modifications of populations of the states of the system 'atom plus field.' From one side it can be followed by new peculiarities in the effect of the coherent population trapping and from other -- the effects of the population modifications are important for explanation of regularities of nonlinear magneto-optical effects. The modification of population dynamics due to the parameters of the system -- radiation field intensities, detunings, polarizations, magnetic field strength and orientation, relaxation constants leads to the new features in polarization effects, resonant fluorescence and resonant Raman effects. The new features of the considered theory are that it is built for multilevel atoms and has not restrictions on the probe intensity compared to the pump intensity. The theory and method permit to investigate the populations modifications depending on modifications of the parameters of the system and to find the relation between population dynamics and new nonlinear resonant magneto-optical effects. The considered system consists of atomic gas of low concentration in the constant magnetic field and two monochromatic laser fields of different intensities and polarizations. Analytically the influence of magnetic field on population dynamics of three-level systems have been considered. For real multilevel atom the computer simulations show the dependence of population dynamics on relaxation constants and the differences of this dynamics for different magnetic sublevels of the excited states of the atom. The results agree with known theoretical and experimental works.