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Summary: Electric-Field-Induced Symmetry Breaking of Angular Momentum Distribution in Atoms
Marcis Auzinsh,* Kaspars Blushs, Ruvin Ferber, Florian Gahbauer, Andrey Jarmola, and Maris Tamanis
Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Latvia, Rainis Blvd. 19, Riga LV-1586, Latvia
(Received 23 March 2006; published 27 July 2006)
We report the experimental observation of alignment to orientation conversion in the 7D3=2 and 9D3=2
states of Cs in the presence of an external dc electric field and without the influence of magnetic fields or
atomic collisions. Initial alignment of angular momentum states was created by two-step excitation with
linearly polarized laser radiation. The appearance of transverse orientation of angular momentum was
confirmed by the observation of circularly polarized light. We present experimentally measured signals
and compare them with the results of a detailed theoretical model based on the optical Bloch equations.
The effect is odd under time reversal and should be taken into account in ever more sensitive searches for
an electron electric dipole moment.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.043002 PACS numbers: 32.80.Qk, 32.60.+i
Atomic physics experiments are able to place sensitive
limits on the permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of
the electron because highly polarizable atoms can generate
internal electric fields that are orders of magnitude higher
than can be achieved for free particles [1,2]. Such limits on
the electron EDM are of great interest to fundamental
physics because a permanent EDM of a fundamental par-
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