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Enhancement of dispersion due to optical coherence in multilevel rubidium atoms

Yongqing Li, Shaozheng Jin, Min Xiao

Published May 8, 1994• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The effect of enhanced dispersion with suppressed absorption due to optical coherence and quantum interference in multilevel atomic systems has attracted great attention in recent years.1,2 Although many theoretical papers have been published on this subject, few experiments have been reported. Harris and co-workers demonstrated suppression of absorption in Pb atomic vapor with a coherent pumping field in a three-level cascade system.3 Recently, they performed an experiment to reduce group velocity of a laser pulse in the same multilevel system of Pb atomic vapor by inducing optical coherence between another transition that shares one level with the transition near resonance with the probe beam.4

Related papers

Observation of an electromagnetically induced change of absorption in multilevel rubidium atoms

Yongqing Li, Shaozheng Jin, Min Xiao

A 64.4% reduction in absorption at the rubidium D2 line is observed when a pumping field at 775.8 nm is tuned on resonance to the transition between the excited states 5${\mathit{P}}_{3/2}$ and 5${\mathit{D}}_{5/2}$. As the pumping field is tuned off resonance, an absorption peak appears at the side of the Doppler-broadened D2 line. This modification in absorption is related to pumping-induced atomic coherence in this three-level ladder-type system. This experiment is done in a Rb vapor cell at room temperature and with cw diode lasers for both pumping and probe beams in a Doppler-free configuration.

Physical Review A•Mar 1, 1995•64 citations

Destruction of darkness: Optical coherence effects and multi-wave mixing in rubidium vapor

Alexander S. Zibrov

We describe several novel experimental effects resulting from optical coherences in multilevel atoms driven with coherent laser fields. Four configurations were explored using Rb vapor cells: lambda dark-line resonances, single beam double-lambda oscillations, and cascade two-photon transitions in co- and counter-propagating geometries. Experiments were performed with high spectral-resolution using low-power diode lasers sources and optically thick cells. Two of the most striking effects we observed are: (1) a self-oscillation that occurs at 3.0 GHz on the 85Rb hyperfine frequency when a single laser field pumps the atoms, and (2) a coherent blue-beam emission that we observe in the co-propagating cascade two-photon case. These phenomena lead to complex lineshapes, and the effects sometimes dominate the well-known 3-level coherence effects. Additional higher-order mixing or cascaded interferences are apparent in all four experimental configurations. Many of these can be viewed as multi-wave mixing enhanced by optical coherences around closed-loop paths of atomic energy levels. The effects are particularly strong when four-photon closed-loop paths with resonant energy levels are possible, as in, the double-lambda system or as a four-wave mixing “box.”

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Summary form only given. The study on the interaction between electromagnetic fields and multi-level atoms or molecules has discovered many interesting effects including electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) enhanced dispersion with reduced absorption, and lasing without inversion. Recent interests include ultraslow group velocity of light, and superluminal light propagation. Atomic coherence created between different atomic levels plays an essential rule in these experiments. On the other hand, quantum features in the interaction between electromagnetic fields and three-level systems based on atomic coherence have attracted extensive theoretical interests. These include generation of amplitude-squeezed and quantum noise-correlated states of light with EIT, entanglement of atomic states with light fields, and quantum memory for light. According to these theoretical works, manipulation of quantum states of either light fields or atoms via atomic coherence is possible. We study quantum state manipulation of light via coherently driven Raman coherence in a /spl Lambda/-type three-level system of rubidium vapor under far off one-photon resonance condition both theoretically and experimentally.

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Electromagnetically induced transparency in a three-level Λ-type system in rubidium atoms

Yongqing Li, Min Xiao

An electromagnetically induced transparency is observed at one arm of a three-level \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type system in a rubidium D1 line (794.8 nm) with an 85% reduction in absorption, when a pumping field is present at the other arm. This reduction in absorption for the weak probe field is due to the atomic coherence produced by the strong pumping field. This experiment is done in a Rb vapor cell at room temperature with cw diode lasers for both pumping and probe beams in a Doppler-free configuration. A simple theoretical treatment including Doppler broadening is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental measurement.

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Optical Control Of Multi-Photon Coherent Interactions In Rubidium Atoms

G. Romanov

In the last few decades, coherent light-atom interactions have opened unprecedented possibilities for the coherent control of atomic and optical quantum systems, paved the way for the practical realization of quantum information technologies, and allowed for the creation of novel quantum-enhanced sensors. This dissertation investigates the interaction of multiple near-resonant optical fields with hot rubidium atoms under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. The main goal of the presented research is to address some fundamental challenges in using such systems for practical applications. The EIT effect relies on the strong coupling of an optical probe field and a collective long-lived ensemble of atomic spins by the means of a strong classical optical control field in a Lambda configuration. While optically-thick atomic vapor is necessary to achieve such a strong coupling regime, the increasing optical depth of the atomic ensemble also leads to the effective enhancement of other nonlinear light-atom interactions, such as the four-wave mixing effect. Here we discuss the possibility to control four-wave mixing in a three-level system without deteriorating the coherent properties of EIT by introducing an additional absorber resonant exclusively with the Stokes field. The exclusive detection of a weak probe field in the presence of a strong control field is a challenging experimental task, especially at the few-photon level. Many experiments employ polarization and/or frequency filtering to compete the task. We present an alternative filtering technique based on optical vortices for cases when the traditional methods are not sufficient or restrict the experimental arrangements. Finally, we demonstrate the possibility to manipulate the group velocity of a pulsed squeezed vacuum field by using the optical dispersion modification via Zeeman spin coherence in rubidium atoms. By changing the interaction condition, we demonstrate the switch between the ``slow'' and (for the first time) ``fast'' light regime. We also show that increased optical depth simultaneously leads to the enhancement of pulse advancement and the deterioration of squeezing fidelity in the output pulses.

•Jan 1, 2017•0 citations

Phase-dependent atomic coherence and interference in multi-level atomic systems

Jiepeng Zhang, Yifu Zhu

Atomic coherence and interference manifested by electromagentically induced transparency (EIT) and coherent population trapping (CPT) plays an important role in the current studies of atom-photon interactions and has found numerous applications in optical physics. EIT is created in a three-level atomic system by a coupling field and results in destructive interference between two excitation paths of a weak probe laser interacting with the atomic medium. This leads to suppressed linear absorption and rapidly varying atomic dispersion for the probe laser near the atomic resonance, which provides the platform for a variety of applications such as nonlinear optics at low light levels, slow light manipulation, and quantum state engineering for photons and atoms. Here we extend the simple three-level EIT system to more complicated and versatile configurations in a multi-level atomic system coupled by multiple laser fields. We show that with multiple excitation paths provided by different laser fields, phase-dependent quantum interference is induced: either constructive or destructive interference can be realized by varying the relative phases among the laser fields. Two specific examples are discussed. One is a three-level system coupled by bichromatic coupling and probe fields, in which the phase dependent interference between the resonant two-photon Raman transitions can be initiated and controlled. Another is a four-level system coupled by two coupling fields and two probe fields, in which a double-EIT configuration is created by the phase-dependent interference between three-photon and one-photon excitation processes. We analyze the coherently coupled multi-level atomic system and discuss the control parameters for the onset of constructive or destructive quantum interference. We describe two experiments performed with cold Rb atoms that can be approximately treated as the coherently coupled three-level and four-level atomic systems respectively. The experimental results show the phase-dependent quantum coherence and interference in the multi-level Rb atomic system, and agree with the theoretical calculations based on the coherently coupled three-level or four-level model system.

BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS eBooks•Jan 1, 2009•0 citations
The effect of enhanced dispersion with suppressed absorption due to optical coherence and quantum interference in multilevel atomic systems has attracted great attention in recent years.1,2 Although many theoretical papers have been published on this subject, few experiments have been reported. Harris and co-workers demonstrated suppression of absorption in Pb atomic vapor with a coherent pumping field in a three-level cascade system.3 Recently, they performed an experiment to reduce group velocity of a laser pulse in the same multilevel system of Pb atomic vapor by inducing optical coherence between another transition that shares one level with the transition near resonance with the probe beam.4
A 64.4% reduction in absorption at the rubidium D2 line is observed when a pumping field at 775.8 nm is tuned on resonance to the transition between the excited states 5P3/2{\mathit{P}}_{3/2}P3/2​ and 5D5/2{\mathit{D}}_{5/2}D5/2​. As the pumping field is tuned off resonance, an absorption peak appears at the side of the Doppler-broadened D2 line. This modification in absorption is related to pumping-induced atomic coherence in this three-level ladder-type system. This experiment is done in a Rb vapor cell at room temperature and with cw diode lasers for both pumping and probe beams in a Doppler-free configuration.
We describe several novel experimental effects resulting from optical coherences in multilevel atoms driven with coherent laser fields. Four configurations were explored using Rb vapor cells: lambda dark-line resonances, single beam double-lambda oscillations, and cascade two-photon transitions in co- and counter-propagating geometries. Experiments were performed with high spectral-resolution using low-power diode lasers sources and optically thick cells. Two of the most striking effects we observed are: (1) a self-oscillation that occurs at 3.0 GHz on the 85Rb hyperfine frequency when a single laser field pumps the atoms, and (2) a coherent blue-beam emission that we observe in the co-propagating cascade two-photon case. These phenomena lead to complex lineshapes, and the effects sometimes dominate the well-known 3-level coherence effects. Additional higher-order mixing or cascaded interferences are apparent in all four experimental configurations. Many of these can be viewed as multi-wave mixing enhanced by optical coherences around closed-loop paths of atomic energy levels. The effects are particularly strong when four-photon closed-loop paths with resonant energy levels are possible, as in, the double-lambda system or as a four-wave mixing “box.”
Summary form only given. The study on the interaction between electromagnetic fields and multi-level atoms or molecules has discovered many interesting effects including electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) enhanced dispersion with reduced absorption, and lasing without inversion. Recent interests include ultraslow group velocity of light, and superluminal light propagation. Atomic coherence created between different atomic levels plays an essential rule in these experiments. On the other hand, quantum features in the interaction between electromagnetic fields and three-level systems based on atomic coherence have attracted extensive theoretical interests. These include generation of amplitude-squeezed and quantum noise-correlated states of light with EIT, entanglement of atomic states with light fields, and quantum memory for light. According to these theoretical works, manipulation of quantum states of either light fields or atoms via atomic coherence is possible. We study quantum state manipulation of light via coherently driven Raman coherence in a /spl Lambda/-type three-level system of rubidium vapor under far off one-photon resonance condition both theoretically and experimentally.
An electromagnetically induced transparency is observed at one arm of a three-level \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type system in a rubidium D1 line (794.8 nm) with an 85% reduction in absorption, when a pumping field is present at the other arm. This reduction in absorption for the weak probe field is due to the atomic coherence produced by the strong pumping field. This experiment is done in a Rb vapor cell at room temperature with cw diode lasers for both pumping and probe beams in a Doppler-free configuration. A simple theoretical treatment including Doppler broadening is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental measurement.
In the last few decades, coherent light-atom interactions have opened unprecedented possibilities for the coherent control of atomic and optical quantum systems, paved the way for the practical realization of quantum information technologies, and allowed for the creation of novel quantum-enhanced sensors. This dissertation investigates the interaction of multiple near-resonant optical fields with hot rubidium atoms under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. The main goal of the presented research is to address some fundamental challenges in using such systems for practical applications. The EIT effect relies on the strong coupling of an optical probe field and a collective long-lived ensemble of atomic spins by the means of a strong classical optical control field in a Lambda configuration. While optically-thick atomic vapor is necessary to achieve such a strong coupling regime, the increasing optical depth of the atomic ensemble also leads to the effective enhancement of other nonlinear light-atom interactions, such as the four-wave mixing effect. Here we discuss the possibility to control four-wave mixing in a three-level system without deteriorating the coherent properties of EIT by introducing an additional absorber resonant exclusively with the Stokes field. The exclusive detection of a weak probe field in the presence of a strong control field is a challenging experimental task, especially at the few-photon level. Many experiments employ polarization and/or frequency filtering to compete the task. We present an alternative filtering technique based on optical vortices for cases when the traditional methods are not sufficient or restrict the experimental arrangements. Finally, we demonstrate the possibility to manipulate the group velocity of a pulsed squeezed vacuum field by using the optical dispersion modification via Zeeman spin coherence in rubidium atoms. By changing the interaction condition, we demonstrate the switch between the ``slow'' and (for the first time) ``fast'' light regime. We also show that increased optical depth simultaneously leads to the enhancement of pulse advancement and the deterioration of squeezing fidelity in the output pulses.
Atomic coherence and interference manifested by electromagentically induced transparency (EIT) and coherent population trapping (CPT) plays an important role in the current studies of atom-photon interactions and has found numerous applications in optical physics. EIT is created in a three-level atomic system by a coupling field and results in destructive interference between two excitation paths of a weak probe laser interacting with the atomic medium. This leads to suppressed linear absorption and rapidly varying atomic dispersion for the probe laser near the atomic resonance, which provides the platform for a variety of applications such as nonlinear optics at low light levels, slow light manipulation, and quantum state engineering for photons and atoms. Here we extend the simple three-level EIT system to more complicated and versatile configurations in a multi-level atomic system coupled by multiple laser fields. We show that with multiple excitation paths provided by different laser fields, phase-dependent quantum interference is induced: either constructive or destructive interference can be realized by varying the relative phases among the laser fields. Two specific examples are discussed. One is a three-level system coupled by bichromatic coupling and probe fields, in which the phase dependent interference between the resonant two-photon Raman transitions can be initiated and controlled. Another is a four-level system coupled by two coupling fields and two probe fields, in which a double-EIT configuration is created by the phase-dependent interference between three-photon and one-photon excitation processes. We analyze the coherently coupled multi-level atomic system and discuss the control parameters for the onset of constructive or destructive quantum interference. We describe two experiments performed with cold Rb atoms that can be approximately treated as the coherently coupled three-level and four-level atomic systems respectively. The experimental results show the phase-dependent quantum coherence and interference in the multi-level Rb atomic system, and agree with the theoretical calculations based on the coherently coupled three-level or four-level model system.