Dark resonance of Cs atoms velocity-selected in a thin cell

Abstract

We carried out experimental and theoretical research on dark Raman resonances in the absorption of the probe monochromatic wave in a thin vapor cell, whose length is much less than the diameters of probe and coupling laser beams. In this case, only the slow atoms have enough time to settle down to the dark quantum state during a free flight between the end walls of the cell. As a result, a sub-Doppler structure is observed when one sweeps both the coupling and probe laser frequencies keeping the Raman resonance condition. Second harmonic lock-in detection is used to evaluate sharpness of the dark-resonance line. The cell-length dependence of the observed spectral profile is satisfactorily reproduced by the steady-state analysis of the density matrix in which the velocity-dependent transit time effect is taken into account.