Sub-half-wavelength atom localization of a V-type three-level atom via relative phase

Abstract

Coherent interaction of an atom with a position-dependent standing-wave cavity field can impart position information of a moving atom through the cavity leading to subwavelength atom localization. We show that the position of the atom along the standing-wave field is determined when the probe-field absorption is measured. We find out that absorption of the weak probe field at a certain frequency leads to subwavelength localization of the atom in either of the two half-wavelength regions of the cavity field by appropriate choice of the system parameters. In addition, we demonstrate that the position information of a three-level V-shaped moving atom strongly depends on the relative phase of applied fields. By appropriate choice of the relative phase, it is shown that the scheme can be used for localizing an atom flying through the standing-wave field to the sub-half-wavelength domain.