Coherent population trapping in optically thin 133Cs atomic vapor in a finite-size cell

Abstract

We study the peculiarities of the coherent population trapping (CPT) dark resonance in atomic vapor confined in a finite-size cell. Taking into account the scattering of atoms on anti-relaxation coating of the walls, we analyze the line shape of the CPT resonance in 133 C s depending on various parameters, such as the width of laser radiation spectrum, the type of pumping, and the magnitude of static magnetic field for both lin || lin and l i n ⊥ l i n polarization schemes. We show that for different parameters, the dependence of the line shape on the size of a cell is different, i.e., different factors affect the CPT resonance nonadditively. Thus, in the case when CPT resonance is excited by a narrowband laser, the shape of the resonance weakly depends on the size of a cell due to the laser-induced narrowing effect. We also show that the distortion of the line shape of the CPT resonance caused by nonresonant hyperfine sublevels of atomic excited states is modified with the size of a cell. Our calculation reveals the important role of accounting for the hyperfine and Zeeman structure of atomic levels. We have shown that the contrast of the CPT resonance differs about 5 times from the prediction of the simple three-level Λ model. The obtained results can be used for the optimization of the quantum frequency standards based on the CPT effect. In the final part of the paper, on the basis of the shot noise approximation we estimate the short-term stability of such standards.