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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Coloring the vacuum with a superconfocal cavity

S. Morin, Daniel J. Gauthier, THOMAS W. MOSSBERG

Published Jan 1, 1991• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The boundary conditions imposed on the vacuum field by the superconfocal cavity (SCC) create a region of space, the active volume, at the cavity center in which the spectral structure of the vacuum field is perturbed. These perturbations transform the normally white spectrum of the free-space vacuum field into a colored vacuum whose spectrum is a comb of peaks coincident with the cavity resonance frequencies. Operating as designed, atoms resonant with the cavity and in the active region will experience a vacuum field mode density 1.5 times that in free-space. Perturbations in the vacuum field mode density of this magnitude and operative over so large an active volume (1.4 × 107µm3) have not, to our knowledge, been previously achieved in an open optical cavity. We expect to observe a plethora of new and novel phenomena associated with laser–atom interactions in the presence of a colored vacuum. The first experiment will focus on the dynamic suppression of spontaneous emission1 which predicts a dramatic narrowing of the central Mollow peak as the Rabi frequency becomes larger than the FWHM of the SCC-induced peaks in the vacuum field mode density.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1991.fo4

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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1991•0 citations
The boundary conditions imposed on the vacuum field by the superconfocal cavity (SCC) create a region of space, the active volume, at the cavity center in which the spectral structure of the vacuum field is perturbed. These perturbations transform the normally white spectrum of the free-space vacuum field into a colored vacuum whose spectrum is a comb of peaks coincident with the cavity resonance frequencies. Operating as designed, atoms resonant with the cavity and in the active region will experience a vacuum field mode density 1.5 times that in free-space. Perturbations in the vacuum field mode density of this magnitude and operative over so large an active volume (1.4 × 107µm3) have not, to our knowledge, been previously achieved in an open optical cavity. We expect to observe a plethora of new and novel phenomena associated with laser–atom interactions in the presence of a colored vacuum. The first experiment will focus on the dynamic suppression of spontaneous emission1 which predicts a dramatic narrowing of the central Mollow peak as the Rabi frequency becomes larger than the FWHM of the SCC-induced peaks in the vacuum field mode density.
The earliest studies on the subject of spontaneous emission from an excited atom via interaction with the vacuum modes of the radiation field go back to the early days of quantum mechanics. In view of the fundamental nature of the vacuum fluctuations, it was long thought that spontaneous emission could not be controlled. However, in 1946 Purcell noted that the spontaneous emission rate of the atom inside a resonant cavity can be substantially enhanced (or suppressed) over its free-space value. This is due to the dramatic change of the density of modes of the vacuum field in a cavity. The enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission in resonant and off-resonant cavities were observed experimentally in the 1980s. It was also realized in the 1950s and 1960s that coherent driving fields can dramatically change the characteristics of the spontaneous emission. The Autler-Townes doublet and Mollow three-peak spectrum are the examples of such behavior. A dramatic narrowing of the spectral peaks were discovered in driven multilevel atomic systems in the early 1990s. The role of atomic coherence in quenching spontaneous emission fluctuations in the context of laser physics was studied in the 1980s, via the correlated spontaneous emission laser (CEL). In this case atomic coherence results in the correlation of two spontaneous emission noise events so that the spontaneous emission quantum noise is eliminated in the relative linewidth. Later, it was “discovered” that the spontaneous emission can be suppressed through quantum interference between decay channels. Properly stated, this was rediscovered since it was first discovered and explained by Lamb in the 1940s. If the dipoles of two transitions from one upper level to two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission in an ordinary vacuum can be cancelled. In a nonuniform vacuum, e.g., a cavity, the quenching of spontaneous emission can be achieved, even for the orthogonal dipoles.
In free space, where the vacuum mode density varies relatively slowly in the spectral region of an atomic transition, an atom’s real-field and vacuum interactions are effectively decoupled. Consequently, spontaneous decay and the Lamb shift are, for all practical purposes, independent of any real-field atomic perturbation. However, in a colored vacuum (i.e., a low-Q cavity) the vacuum mode density can change significantly in the vicinity of an atomic transition, so that a Stark shift will alter an atom’s vacuum environment and thereby couple real-field and vacuum effects. Since the ac Stark shift is an inherent aspect of multiphoton processes, this coupling is unavoidable for highly nonlinear field–atom interactions that occur in cavities. Here we consider this effect for 3+2 resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization of xenon.
The spectrum of spontaneously emitted photons from an atom interacting with a single cavity mode depends on the relative sizes of the mode coupling constant and the cavity loss rate. If the coupling constant is not too large, perturbation theory can he used to show that the atomic linewidth is either increased (enhanced spontaneous emission) or decreased (inhibited spontaneous emission) by the presence of the cavity. When the coupling constant is so large that perturbation theory cannot be used, the spontaneous- emission spectrum forms a doublet, with peaks located at the normal-mode frequencies for the coupled-dipole and cavity-mode oscillators (the so-called "vacuum" Rabi splitting).
We measure the transmission spectrum of an optical cavity filled with two-level atoms. For small intensities, the coupling between atoms and a single mode of the cavity splits the spectrum into two normal modes: the vacuum Rabi peaks. We gradually decouple the system in two ways and study the evolution of the vacuum Rabi peaks. First we lower the atom-cavity coupling frequency through its intensity dependence, showing that the peaks shift, deform, exhibit frequency hysteresis, and eventually merge into a single peak that approaches the empty cavity resonance. Second we detune the atoms and the cavity mode and observe an avoided crossing. The normal modes of the coupled system transform into the two resonances of the uncoupled system. We map out the transition region and find good agreement with theoretical predictions.
The characteristics of dissipative mechanical forces acting on strongly driven atoms depend on the spontaneous decay rate of the driven transition. In previous studies,1 it has been assumed that the spontaneous decay rates arise from the coupling of the atoms to the free-space electromagnetic vacuum reservoir. Recently, it has been shown2 that new and novel physics can arise when the reservoir that mediates atomic relaxation is colored (frequency dependent) as can be accomplished by a suitably designed cavity or waveguide. We show that a two-level atom moving in an intense rest-frame-resonant standing-wave and decaying via coupling to a colored vacuum reservoir experiences a damping force (which is substantially larger than that predicted in other studies) useful in slowing the atom. This force, unlike traditional cooling forces, is effective over a dramatically wide range of atomic velocities. In fact, the force can be effective even for thermal velocity atoms if the vacuum is strongly colored.