Effect of a Squeezed Vacuum on Coherent Population Trapping in a Three-level Lambda System

Abstract

Abstract Master equation methods are used to investigate the effects of a broad-band squeezed vacuum on a three-level atom of the lambda configuration. The two-mode squeezed vacuum is treated as a Markovian reservoir in a non-stationary phase-dependent state. In addition to the squeezed vacuum the atom is driven by two coherent laser fields each of which, depending on the polarization, can couple to one or both of the atomic transitions. We show that in general the optical Bloch equations for the atomic density matrix elements have oscillatory coefficients, thereby necessitating the use of Floquet methods. For the case of equal laser frequencies, which are also equal to the carrier frequency of the squeezed vacuum, the coefficients of the Bloch equations become time independent and stationary solutions for the populations and coherences are obtained by standard matrix methods. For the ordinary vacuum the usual coherent population trapping effect at two-photon resonance is obtained, with the upper state po...