No Arabic abstract
The explanation presented in [Taichenachev et al, Phys. Rev. A {bf 61}, 011802 (2000)] according to which the electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) resonances observed in degenerate two level systems are due to coherence transfer from the excited to the ground state is experimentally tested in a Hanle type experiment observing the parametric resonance on the $% D1$ line of $^{87}$Rb. While EIA occurs in the $F=1to F^{prime}=2 $ transition in a cell containing only $Rb$ vapor, collisions with a buffer gas ($30 torr$ of $Ne$) cause the sign reversal of this resonance as a consequence of collisional decoherence of the excited state. A theoretical model in good qualitative agreement with the experimental results is presented.
We optically excite $^{85}$Rb atoms in a heated vapor cell to a low-lying Rydberg state 10D$_{5/2}$ and observe directional terahertz (THz) beams at 3.3 THz and 7.8 THz. These THz fields are generated by amplified spontaneous emission from the 10D$_{5/2}$ state to the 11P$_{3/2}$ and 8F$_{7/2}$ states, respectively. In addition, we observe ultraviolet (UV) light produced by four-wave mixing of optical pump lasers and the 3.3 THz field. We characterize the generated THz power over the detuning and power of pump lasers, and identify experimental conditions favoring THz and UV generation, respectively. Our scheme paves a new pathway towards generating high-power narrow-band THz radiation.
The decoherence induced on a single qubit by its interaction with the environment is studied. The environment is modelled as a scalar two-level boson system that can go through either first order or continuous excited state quantum phase transitions, depending on the values of the control parameters. A mean field method based on the Tamm-Damkoff approximation is worked out in order to understand the observed behaviour of the decoherence. Only the continuous excited state phase transition produces a noticeable effect in the decoherence of the qubit. This is maximal when the system-environment coupling brings the environment to the critical point for the continuous phase transition. In this situation, the decoherence factor (or the fidelity) goes to zero with a finite size scaling power law.
A new configuration for observation of magneto-optical subnatural-linewidth resonances of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in alkali vapor has been verified experimentally. The configuration includes using two counter-propagating pump and probe light waves with mutually orthogonal linear polarizations, exciting an open optical transition of an alkali atom in the presence of a buffer gas. The main advantage of the novel observation scheme consists in the possibility of obtaining simultaneously high-contrast and quite narrow nonlinear signals. Here a 2.5-cm long rubidium-87 vapor cell filled with Ar buffer gas is used, and the excited optical transition is the F$_g$=2 $to$ F$_e$=1 of the D$_1$ line. The signals registered reach a contrast of 57.7% with a FWHM of 7.2 mG. The contrast with respect to a wide Doppler pedestal well exceeds 100%. To our knowledge, to date this is the best result for EIA resonances in terms of contrast-to-width ratio. In general, the results demonstrate that the new magneto-optical scheme has very good prospects for various applications in quantum metrology, nonlinear optics and photonics.
We demonstrate laser frequency stabilization to excited state transitions using cascade electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Using a room temperature Rb vapor cell as a reference, we stabilize a first diode laser to the D2 transition and a second laser to a transition from the intermediate state to a Rydberg state with principal quantum number n=19 - 70. A combined laser linewidth of 280 kHz over a 0.1 ms time period is achieved. This method may be applied generally to any cascade system and allows laser stabilization to an atomic reference in the absence of strong optical transitions.
A comprehensive study of three-photon electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) and absorption (EIA) on the rubidium cascade $5S_{1/2} rightarrow 5P_{3/2}$ (laser wavelength 780~nm), $5P_{3/2} rightarrow 5D_{5/2}$ (776~nm), and $5D_{5/2}rightarrow 28F_{7/2}$ (1260~nm) is performed. The 780-nm probe and 776-nm dressing beams are counter-aligned through a Rb room-temperature vapor cell, and the 1260-nm coupler beam is co- or counter-aligned with the probe beam. Several cases of EIT and EIA, measured over a range of detunings of the 776-nm beam, are studied. The observed phenomena are modeled by numerically solving the Lindblad equation, and the results are interpreted in terms of the probe-beam absorption behavior of velocity- and detuning-dependent dressed states. To explore the utility of three-photon Rydberg EIA/EIT for microwave electric-field diagnostics, a sub-THz field generated by a signal source and a frequency quadrupler is applied to the Rb cell. The 100.633-GHz field resonantly drives the $28F_{7/2}leftrightarrow29D_{5/2}$ transition and causes Autler-Townes splittings in the Rydberg EIA/EIT spectra, which are measured and employed to characterize the performance of the microwave quadrupler.