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Physical Review A

Localization of atomic excitation beyond the diffraction limit using electromagnetically induced transparency

Jared A. Miles, Diptaranjan Das, Zach J. Simmons, Deniz D. Yavuz

Published Sep 21, 2015• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the localization of excitation between hyperfine ground states of $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms to as small as $\ensuremath{\lambda}/13$-wide spatial regions. We use ultracold atoms trapped in a dipole trap and utilize electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) for the atomic excitation. The localization is achieved by combining a spatially varying coupling laser (standing wave) with the intensity dependence of EIT. The excitation is fast (150 ns laser pulses) and the dark-state fidelity can be made higher than 94% throughout the standing wave. Because the width of the localized regions is much smaller than the wavelength of the driving light, traditional optical imaging techniques cannot resolve the localized features. Therefore, to measure the excitation profile, we use an autocorrelation-like method where we perform two EIT sequences separated by a time delay, during which we move the standing wave.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.033838

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We experimentally demonstrate the localization of excitation between hyperfine ground states of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms to as small as \ensuremathλ/13\ensuremath{\lambda}/13\ensuremathλ/13-wide spatial regions. We use ultracold atoms trapped in a dipole trap and utilize electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) for the atomic excitation. The localization is achieved by combining a spatially varying coupling laser (standing wave) with the intensity dependence of EIT. The excitation is fast (150 ns laser pulses) and the dark-state fidelity can be made higher than 94% throughout the standing wave. Because the width of the localized regions is much smaller than the wavelength of the driving light, traditional optical imaging techniques cannot resolve the localized features. Therefore, to measure the excitation profile, we use an autocorrelation-like method where we perform two EIT sequences separated by a time delay, during which we move the standing wave.
We report an experiment in which an atomic excitation is localized to a spatial width that is a factor of 8 smaller than the wavelength of the incident light.The experiment utilizes the sensitivity of the dark state of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to the intensity of the coupling laser beam.A standing-wave coupling laser with a sinusoidally varying intensity yields tightly confined Raman excitations during the EIT process.The excitations, located near the nodes of the intensity profile, have a width of 100 nm.The experiment is performed using ultracold 87 Rb atoms trapped in an optical dipole trap, and atomic localization is achieved with EIT pulses that are approximately 100 ns long.To probe subwavelength atom localization, we have developed a technique that can measure the width of the atomic excitations with nanometer spatial resolution.
We report an experiment in which an atomic excitation is localized to a spatial width that is a factor of 8 smaller than the wavelength of the incident light. The experiment utilizes the sensitivity of the dark state of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to the intensity of the coupling laser beam. A standing-wave coupling laser with a sinusoidally varying intensity yields tightly confined Raman excitations during the EIT process. The excitations, located near the nodes of the intensity profile, have a width of 100 nm. The experiment is performed using ultracold Rb atoms trapped in an optical dipole trap, and atomic localization is achieved with EIT pulses that are approximately 100 ns long. To probe subwavelength atom localization, we have developed a technique that can measure the width of the atomic excitations with nanometer spatial resolution.
We study numerically the localization of atomic excitation based on the dark states formed through electromagnetically induced transparency using interfering coupling beams. In particular, we examine the formation of dark states in a system exhibiting hyperfine splitting, including the effects of optical pumping in this multilevel system, laser polarization, and finite interaction time, and explore the conditions that lead to optimal spatial resolution of the excitation. We find that optimal localization requires long interaction times, due to the slow approach of the atomic system to steady state near the nodes of the standing wave pattern.
We demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a sample of rubidium atoms, trapped in an optical dipole trap. Mixing a small amount of σ−σ^-σ−-polarized light to the weak σ+σ^+σ+-polarized probe pulses, we are able to measure the absorptive and dispersive properties of the atomic medium at the same time. Features as small as 4 kHz have been detected on an absorption line with 20 MHz line width.