Competition between the tensor light shift and nonlinear Zeeman effect

Abstract

Many precision measurements (e.g., in spectroscopy, atomic clocks, quantum-information processing, etc.) suffer from systematic errors introduced by the light shift. In our experimental configuration, however, the tensor light shift plays a positive role enabling the observation of spectral features otherwise masked by the cancellation of the transition amplitudes and creating resonances at a frequency unperturbed either by laser power or beam inhomogeneity. These phenomena occur thanks to the special relation between the nonlinear Zeeman and light shift effects. The interplay between these two perturbations is systematically studied and the cancellation of the nonlinear Zeeman effect by the tensor light shift is demonstrated.