Electromagnetically induced transparency in an inhomogeneously broadened {Lambda} transition with multiple excited levels

Journal Article · Sun May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.83.053809· OSTI ID:21546858

Mishina, O S; Scherman, M; Lombardi, P; Ortalo, J; Bramati, A; Laurat, J; Giacobino, E ^[1]; Felinto, D ^[2]; Sheremet, A S; Kupriyanov, D V ^[3]

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1. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Ecole Normale Superieure, CNRS, Case 74, 4 place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
2. Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901 Recife, PE (Brazil)
3. Department of Theoretical Physics, State Polytechnic University, 195251, St. Petersburg (Russian Federation)

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has mainly been modeled for three-level systems. In particular, considerable interest has been dedicated to the {Lambda} configuration, with two ground states and one excited state. However, in the alkali-metal atoms, which are commonly used, the hyperfine interaction in the excited state introduces several levels which simultaneously participate in the scattering process. When the Doppler broadening is comparable with the hyperfine splitting in the upper state, the three-level {Lambda} model does not reproduce the experimental results. Here we theoretically investigate the EIT in a hot vapor of alkali-metal atoms and demonstrate that it can be strongly reduced by the presence of multiple excited levels. Given this model, we also show that well-designed optical pumping enables us to significantly recover the transparency.

• OSTI ID: 21546858
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.053809; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALKALI METALS
ATOMS
DOPPLER BROADENING
EXCITED STATES
GROUND STATES
HYPERFINE STRUCTURE
INTERACTIONS
OPACITY
OPTICAL PUMPING
SCATTERING
VAPORS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY LEVELS
FLUIDS
GASES
LINE BROADENING
METALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PUMPING