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arXiv:quant-ph/0206073 · Physical Review A

Laser-induced breakdown of the magnetic-field-reversal symmetry in the propagation of unpolarized light

G. S. Agarwal, Shubhrangshu Dasgupta

Published Feb 28, 2003• 18 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We show how a medium, under the influence of a coherent control field that is resonant or close to resonance to an appropriate atomic transition, can lead to very strong asymmetries in the propagation of unpolarized light when the direction of the magnetic field is reversed. We show how electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) can be used in atomic vapor to mimic this magnetochiral effect that occurs in natural systems. EIT can produce much larger asymmetry than the well-known magnetochiral effect as we use the dipole-allowed transitions here. Using density-matrix calculations we present results for the breakdown of the magnetic-field-reversal symmetry for two different atomic configurations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.67.023814

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Chirality has been extensively studied for well over a century, and its potential applications range from optics to chemistry, medicine, and biology. Ingenious experiments have been designed to measure this naturally small effect. Here we discuss the possibility of producing a medium having a large chiral effect by using the ideas of coherent control. The coherent fields resonant with appropriate transitions in atomic or molecular systems can be used to manipulate the optical properties of a medium. We demonstrate experimentally very large magnetochiral anisotropy by using electromagnetic fields in atomic Rb vapors.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a mechanism to achieve coherent control of the polarization rotation of an optical field in a multilevel electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system in rubidium atoms. By choosing a properly polarized coupling field and transition energy levels, the symmetry of the atomic medium to the propagation of two orthogonal polarization components of a weak linearly polarized probe field can be broken, which leads to a coherently controlled rotation of the probe field polarization. This mechanism of coherently controlled optical polarization rotation makes use of asymmetry in EIT subsystems for the two circular polarization components of the probe beam with a contribution from different transition strengths (due to different Clebsh-Gordan coefficients) in this multilevel atomic system.
We investigate electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in rubidium vapor using a scanning magnetic field co-aligned with the laser propagation direction.Sub-natural line width features appear at zero magnetic field.Criteria for deciding whether to expect EIT or EIA are discussed.Particular attention was given to identification and suppression of spurious signals rising from polarization impurity and residual stray magnetic fields.In the presence of a second strong, coherent laser beam we observed that the EIT signal inverts into an EIA signal.We provide a simple qualitative explanation for this "sign reversal".Our work helps us evolve a clear understanding of the intriguing physics behind coherently prepared atomic media.
The wealth of quantum coherence effects depending on the orientation of external magnetic field, the polarization of coupling and probe lights, and the Rabi frequency of the coupling beam are studied in transition ${F}_{e}=2\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}{F}_{g}=3$ of Cs D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​ line. The split of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonances on two or three resonances determined by the different combination of the polarization of interaction lights and the direction of applied magnetic fields is obtained. The shifting and widening of the EIT resonances with the strength of the magnetic field (i.e., Zeeman splitting in the upper and lower levels) and Rabi frequency of the coupling beam increasing are also discussed. It may develop into the potential application for tunable multichannel optical information storage. On the other hand, an explanation of observed asymmetry of spectra by laser frequency offset from the optical resonance is given with theoretical calculation, which is in good agreement with the experimental results.
We have investigated some possibilities to use effect of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), which is based on quantum interference, for measuring magnetic fields. Multi-frequency laser light is driving atomic transitions (e.g. in a Λ-type excitation scheme), and the atoms are decaying into a super positional dark state, in which the population is trapped, if the frequencies of the applied light fulfills certain conditions. Then the atomic medium becomes transparent for the exciting electromagnetic fields. The observed line width of this "transparency window" is not limited by the natural line width of the involved optical transitions and can be decreased down to a few hundredths of Hertz. As a consequence, this narrow feature can be used as a sensitive probe if the frequencies fulfill the required conditions, which are dependent on the energy positions of the involved atomic levels. These energy positions are influenced by external magnetic fields, thus the observation of EIT can be used to determine external magnetic fields strengths. In our approach a so called Hanle-configuration is used, where only one laser frequency is used to simultaneously excite σ+- and σ--transitions within a single hyperfine transition of the Rb87 Dl-line. In this configuration a resonant Λ-system is formed at zero magnetic field. The detuning from two-photon resonance is caused by a magnetic field scanned in laser propagation direction. Any additional probe magnetic field characteristically changes the width and shape of the EIT transparency window resonance; hence the probe magnetic field can be determined directly from the shape of this resonance.
Abstract Interest in magnetically induced (MI) transitions of alkali metal atoms is caused by the fact that their intensities can exceed the intensities of ‘regular’ atomic transitions in a wide magnetic field range (200–4000 G). The goal of this work was to form and study, for the first time, electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonance in a strong magnetic field using probe radiation tuned to | F g = F , m F = 0 ⟩ → | F e = F , m F = 0 ⟩ MI transition, which is forbidden in zero magnetic fields. Two narrow-band linearly polarized cw diode lasers were used to form EIT resonance on a Λ-type system of a Cs atomic D 2 line in a strong transverse magnetic field (up to 1000 G). The resonance was formed in a Cs atomic vapor nanocell with an atomic vapor column thickness of 850 nm.