A full quantum treatment of coherent population trapping (CPT) is given for a system of resonantly coupled atoms and electromagnetic field. We develop a regular analytical method of the construction of generalized dark states (GDS). It turns out that GDS do exist for all optical transitions
FgtoFe, including bright transitions
FtoF+1 and
F′′toF′′ with
F′′ a half-integer, for which the CPT effect is absent in a classical field.
We propose a scheme that combines velocity-selective coherent population trapping (CPT) and Raman sideband cooling (RSC) for subrecoil cooling of optically trapped atoms outside the Lamb-Dicke regime. This scheme is based on an inverted
Y configuration in an alkali-metal atom. It consists of a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ formed by two Raman transitions between the ground hyperfine levels and the
D transition, allowing RSC along two paths and formation of a CPT dark state. Using the state-dependent difference in vibration frequency of the atom in a circularly polarized trap, we can tune the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ to make only the motional ground state a CPT dark state. We call this scheme motion-selective coherent population trapping (MSCPT). We write the master equations for RSC and MSCPT and solve them numerically for a
87Rb atom in a one-dimensional optical lattice when the Lamb-Dicke parameter is 1. Although MSCPT reaches the steady state slowly compared with RSC, the former consistently produces colder atoms than the latter. The numerical results also show that subrecoil cooling by MSCPT outside the Lamb-Dicke regime is possible under a favorable, yet experimentally feasible, condition. We explain this performance quantitatively by calculating the relative darkness of each motional state. Finally, we discuss the application of the MSCPT scheme to an optically trapped diatomic polar molecule whose Stark shift and vibration frequency exhibit large variations depending on the rotational quantum number.
We observe coherent population trapping (CPT) in a two-electron atom— 174 Yb—using the transition. CPT is not possible for such a transition according to one-electron theory because the magnetic sublevels form a V-type system, but in a two-electron atom like Yb, the interaction of the electrons transforms the level structure into a Λ -type system, which allows the formation of a dark state and hence the observation of CPT. Since the two levels involved are degenerate, we use a magnetic field to lift the degeneracy. The single fluorescence dip then splits into five dips—the central unshifted one corresponds to coherent population oscillation, while the outer four are due to CPT. The linewidth of the CPT resonance is about 300 kHz and is limited by the natural linewidth of the excited state, which is to be expected because the excited state is involved in the formation of the dark state.