On the basis of exact numerical simulations and analytical calculations, we describe qualitatively and quantitatively the interference processes at the origin of the photonic Hall effect for resonant Rayleigh (point-dipole) scatterers in a magnetic field. For resonant incoming light, the induced giant magneto-optical effects result, even for magnetic field strength as low as a few mT, in relative Hall currents in the percent range. This suggests that the observation of the photonic Hall effect in cold atomic vapors is within experimental reach.
The correlation functions of the electromagnetic radiation scattered by an ensemble of atoms cooled to sub-Doppler temperatures and placed in an external static electric or magnetic field have been calculated by the diagram technique. Based on the derived relations, we have studied in detail the effect of coherent backscattering (CBS) of light. We have calculated the enhancement factor for CBS and analyzed its polarization and spectral dependences. We show that external fields affect the nature of multiple light scattering in an atomic ensemble, in particular, the character of interference upon such scattering, by leading to its optical anisotropy and related birefringence and dichroism. This, in turn, affects all of the observed CBS characteristics.
Starting from a microscopic theory for atomic scatterers, we describe the scattering of light by a single atom and study the coherent propagation of light in a cold atomic cloud in the presence of a magnetic field
B in the mesoscopic regime. Nonpertubative expressions in
B are given for the magneto-optical effects and optical anisotropy. We then consider the multiple-scattering regime and address the fate of the coherent-backscattering (CBS) effect. We show that, for atoms with nonzero spin in their ground state, the CBS interference contrast can be increased compared to its value when
B=0, a result at variance with classical samples. We validate our theoretical results by a quantitative comparison with experimental data.