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arXiv:quant-ph/0607218 · Physical Review A

Quantum coherence and population trapping in three-photon processes

C. Champenois, Giovanna Morigi, Jürgen Eschner

Published Nov 3, 2006• 35 citations
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Abstract

The spectroscopic properties of a single tightly trapped atom are studied, when the electronic levels are coupled by three laser fields in an $N$-shaped configuration of levels, whereby a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type level system is weakly coupled to a metastable state. We show that depending on the laser frequencies the response can be tuned from coherent population trapping at two-photon resonance to a behavior at three photon resonance, where the metastable state can get almost unit occupation in a wide range of parameters. For certain parameter regimes the system switches spontaneously between dissipative and coherent dynamics over long time scales.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.74.053404

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The spectroscopic properties of a single tightly trapped atom are studied, when the electronic levels are coupled by three laser fields in an NNN-shaped configuration of levels, whereby a \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ-type level system is weakly coupled to a metastable state. We show that depending on the laser frequencies the response can be tuned from coherent population trapping at two-photon resonance to a behavior at three photon resonance, where the metastable state can get almost unit occupation in a wide range of parameters. For certain parameter regimes the system switches spontaneously between dissipative and coherent dynamics over long time scales.
Master equation methods are used to investigate the effects of a broad-band squeezed vacuum on a three-level atom of the lambda configuration. The two-mode squeezed vacuum is treated as a Markovian reservoir in a non-stationary phase-dependent state. In addition to the squeezed vacuum the atom is driven by two coherent laser fields each of which, depending on the polarization, can couple to one or both of the atomic transitions. We show that in general the optical Bloch equations for the atomic density matrix elements have oscillatory coefficients, thereby necessitating the use of Floquet methods. For the case of equal laser frequencies, which are also equal to the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum, the coefficients of the Bloch equations become time independent and stationary solutions for the populations and coherences are obtained by standard matrix methods. For the ordinary vacuum the usual coherent population trapping effect at two-photon resonance is obtained, with the upper state population being zero. An unsqueezed thermal field partially destroys the trapping effect as the upper state population is no longer zero at two-photon resonance. The squeezed vacuum has the effect of improving the trapping in that the coherence hole becomes more pronounced for some values of the relative phase between the squeezed vacuum and the driving fields. The additional effects of a coherence transfer rate between the two optical coherences, which occurs for special choices of angular momentum quantum numbers are also studied. For the case of equal laser frequencies, the inclusion of this coherence transfer process destroys population trapping and reduces the lambda system to a two-level system. However, for the case of unequal laser frequencies, the coherence transfer process in combination with the squeezed vacuum can restore to some extent the population trapping. We show that other features that do not occur for two-level atoms, such as stationary population inversions between pairs of the atomic levels, also depend on the relative phase and can be enhanced in the squeezed vacuum. In the case of unequal frequencies of the driving fields the population in the upper state depends on the relative phase only when the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum is equal to one of the two frequencies of the driving fields. When the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum is slightly detuned from both frequencies of the driving fields, the population in the upper state is insensitive to the relative phase but is dependent on the degree of squeezing. For large detunings, the population does not show any dependence on the degree of squeezing and its distribution in function of the two-photon detuning is similar to that in the thermal vacuum field.
We have calculated the excitation spectra of a single electron in the excited state of a four-level atom interacting with three laser fields at low intensities, where two of them are on two-photon resonance with the three levels of the atom, while the third laser is a weak one operating between the fourth and excited level of the atom. It is shown that light is switched off at certain frequency due to the coherent population trapping while light is turned on at another frequency, where stimulated emission occurs leading to light amplification without population inversion.
The dynamics of a two-level atom driven by a single laser beam and three-level atom (Lambda configuration) irradiated by two laser beams are studied taking into account of the quantized center-of-mass motion of the atom. It is shown that the trapped atom system under appropriate resonance condition exhibits the large time-scale revivals when the index of the vibrational sideband responsible for the atomic electronic transition is greater than unity. The revival times are shown to be dependent on the initial number of vibrational excitations and the magnitude of the Lamb-Dicke parameter. The sub-Poissonian statistics in vibrational quantum number is observed at certain time intervals. The minimum time of interaction for which the squeezed states of motional quadrature are generated is found to be decreasing with the increase in the Lamb-Dicke parameter.
For a three-level atom in the ssV configuration (i.e., having two excited states each dipole-coupled to a common ground state), we have found a particular linear combination of bare-atom states in which Rabi oscillations and their associated collapses and revivals do not occur. Moving to a dressed-state picture, we discover that this particular linear combination state is just that dressed state which is decoupled from all the field modes. It is a dressed state for which the transition dipole moments with the other dressed states are zero. The existence of this decoupled dressed state depends on the tuning of the dressing laser field, which in turn depends on the bare-atom excited-state dipole moments and energy-level separation. When we include spontaneous emission, the population decays from the other dressed states into this decoupled state and remains coherently trapped there, producing a system that experiences no dynamical behavior. This is exact for \ensuremath{\delta}-function photon statistics (i.e., if there is no intensity uncertainty). The trapping becomes less perfect as the photon statistics are allowed to have a greater bandwidth. Also, if the applied field is tuned incorrectly, the spontaneous realignment of the atomic state amplitudes does not result in a totally decoupled dressed state, and the dynamics proceed normally.
We show that an arbitrary system described by two dipole moments exhibits coherent superpositions of internal states that can be completely decoupled from the dissipative interactions (responsible for decoherence) and an external driving laser field. These superpositions, known as dark or trapping states, can be completely stable or can coherently interact with the remaining states. We examine the master equation describing the dissipative evolution of the system and identify conditions for population trapping and also classify processes that can transfer the population to these undriven and nondecaying states. It is shown that coherent transfers are possible only if the two systems are nonidentical, that is the transitions have different frequencies and/or decay rates. In particular, we find that the trapping conditions can involve both coherent and dissipative interactions, and depending on the energy level structure of the system, the population can be trapped in a linear superposition of two or more bare states, a dressed state corresponding to an eigenstate of the system plus external fields or, in some cases, in one of the excited states of the system. A comprehensive analysis is presented of the different processes that are responsible for population trapping, and we illustrate these ideas with three examples of two coupled systems: single V- and $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type three-level atoms and two nonidentical two-level atoms, which are known to exhibit dark states. We show that the effect of population trapping does not necessarily require decoupling of the antisymmetric superposition from the dissipative interactions. We also find that the vacuum-induced coherent coupling between the systems could be easily observed in $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms. Our analysis of the population trapping in two nonidentical atoms shows that the atoms can be driven into a maximally entangled state which is completely decoupled from the dissipative interaction.
The Schr\"odinger equation in the rotating-wave approximation has been solved nonperturbatively to study the temporal behavior of the occupation probabilities of different levels of a four-level atom interacting with four arbitrarily intense laser fields, such that the frequency of one of them equals the sum of the other three. The three-photon-excitation population dynamics, which is already complex, is strongly modified by one-photon excitation and detunings. Under certain conditions the three-photon excitation traps the population in the state initially populated; the population starts flowing into other states when one-photon excitation is also operative.