Ladder-type System Research Articles

Narrow linewidth two-color polarization spectroscopy due to the atomic coherence effect in a ladder-type atomic system

An experimental investigation of two-color polarization spectroscopy (TCPS) is presented based on the cesium 6S1/2 – 6P3/2 – 8S1/2 (852.3 nm + 794.6 nm) ladder-type system in a room-temperature vapor cell. The dependency of line shapes of TCPS on the power of a 852.3 nm pump and a 794.6 nm probe laser is measured in detail, and we confirm that the linewidth of TCPS in a counter-propagating configuration between the pump and probe laser beams is obviously narrower than that of a co-propagating configuration, due to the atomic coherence effect. It is helpful for laser stabilization of the excited state transition using TCPS without frequency modulation.

Investigation of the two-color polarization spectroscopy between the excited states based on cesium atoms

Two-color polarization spectroscopy (TCPS) of cesium 6S<sub>1/2</sub>-6P<sub>3/2</sub>-8S<sub>1/2</sub> (852.3 nm + 794.6 nm) ladder-type system in a room-temperature vapor cell are investigated. The frequency of 852.3 nm laser used as a pump beam is locked on one of the hyperfine transitions between the ground state 6S<sub>1/2</sub> and excited state 6P<sub>3/2</sub> by the saturated absorption spectroscopy technique, which can populate some atoms on the 6P<sub>3/2</sub> excited state and induce anisotropy in the atomic medium. The frequency of 794.6 nm laser serving as a probe beam is scanned across the whole 6P<sub>3/2</sub>→8S<sub>1/2</sub> transition to ascertain this anisotropy, and thus the TCPS is obtained. In experiment, we measure and analyse the influence of frequency detuning of 852.3 nm pump laser on TCPS, and especially reveal that some of hyperfine energy levels of intermediate excited state 6P<sub>3/2</sub>, which has no direct interaction with the 852.3 nm pump laser, are also populated by a small fraction of atoms with a specific speed in the direction of pump laser beam due to Doppler effect, so they also have contribution to the TCPS when the 794.6 nm probe laser is scanned to the resonance transition line between the 6P<sub>3/2</sub> and 8S<sub>1/2</sub> states after the Doppler frequency shift has been considered. In addition, we prove that the atomic coherence like electromagnetically induced transparency effect obviously results in a narrower line width of TCPS in the case of counter-propagating experimental configuration than that in the case of pump beam co-propagating with the probe beam in the Cs vapor cell. Finally, we apply the TCPS with dispersive shaped feature to frequency stabilization with no modulation, and the frequency fluctuations of 794.6 nm laser are ～0.5 MHz and ～9.2 MHz for the frequency-locking and free running in ～225 s, respectively. The above research work is expected to play a role in precisely measuring the atomic energy level structure and its related hyperfine structure constant (magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole coupling constants), and also in stabilizing the laser frequency to the excited state transition especially for the optical fiber communication, two-color laser cooling/trapping neutral atoms, optical filter, etc.

Interplay between optical pumping and Rydberg EIT in magnetic fields.

We perform Zeeman spectroscopy on a Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system in a room-temperature Cs vapor cell, in magnetic fields up to 50 Gauss. The magnetic interactions of the |6S1/2 Fg = 4> ground, |6P3/2 Fe = 5> intermediate, and |33S1/2> Rydberg states that form the ladder-type EIT system are in the linear Zeeman, quadratic Zeeman, and the Paschen-Back regimes, respectively. We explain the dependence of Rydberg EIT spectra on the magnetic field and polarization. The asymmetry of the EIT spectra, which is caused by the quadratic Zeeman effect of the intermediate state, becomes paramount in magnetic fields ≥40 Gauss. We investigate the interplay between Rydberg EIT, which reduces photon scattering, and optical pumping, which relies on photon scattering. We employ a quantum Monte Carlo wave-function approach to quantitatively model the spectra and their asymmetry behavior. Simulated spectra are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Experimental Study on Double Resonance Optical Pumping Spectroscopy in a Ladder-Type System of 87Rb Atoms**Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No 2017YFA0304203, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 61575116, 61705122, 61728502, 91736209 and 11434007, the Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education of China under Grant

Double resonance optical pumping spectroscopy has an outstanding advantage of high signal-to-noise ratio, thus having potential applications in precision measurement. With the counter propagated 780 nm and 776 nm laser beams acting on a rubidium vapor cell, the high resolution spectrum of 5S1/2 − 5P3/2 − 5D5/2 ladder-type transition of 87Rb atoms is obtained by monitoring the population of the 5S1/2 ground state. The dependence of the spectroscopy lineshape on the probe and coupling fields are comprehensively studied in theory and experiment. This research is helpful for measurement of fundamental physical constants by high resolution spectroscopy.

Electromagnetically induced transparency in degenerate ladder-type system

We study the effect of the electromagnetically-induced transparency on the 3-level ladder-type atomic system, with the middle level being three-fold degenerate, and show the influence of the degeneracy on the shape of both the transparency window and dispersion curve. In the theoretical description of the model, the density matrix formalism is used, with decoherence effects described by the spontaneous emission coefficients from higher to lower energy levels. The corresponding optical Bloch equations are numerically solved in the stationary regime, and the obtained results are interpreted with the help of the theoretical dressed-state analysis. The influence of the control Rabi frequency and spontaneous emission coefficients on the occurrence and properties of the transparency window, as well as the properties of the dispersion curve are also investigated. Finally, using the dressed-state analysis, together with the approximate analytical results from the perturbation theory, we show that the system with the degenerate middle level can be treated as the system without degeneracy, with the modified decay rate from the highest to the middle energy level.

Noise transfer characteristics of Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency

The transfer mechanism from the amplitude noise of the coupling light to the phase noise of the probe light in a Rydberg electromagnetic induced transparency effect derived from a ladder-type system including 6S1/2↔6P3/2↔62D5/2 of Cs atoms is demonstrated by using Mach-Zehnder interferometer and balanced homodyne detection technology. In our experiments, the transmission signal of 852 nm probe light is measured by scanning the coupling light frequency nearby the transition from 6P3/2 to 62D5/2 Rydberg state, while the frequency of the probe light is locked at the resonance transition of the 6S1/2↔6P3/2. The relative phase stability of two arms of Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which is constructed with the first order diffraction light of probe light through an acoustic-optic modulator, is accomplished by the controlled piezoelectric ceramic with the PID feedback loop. The interferences between the probe light and the reference light of Mach-Zehnder interferometer under the different relative phases are observed. The interference spectrum of probe light is in good agreement with the theoretical simulation result of the ladder-type three-level system. Therefore, we study the transfer characteristics from the frequency noise of coupling light to the phase noise of probe light when coupling light frequency resonance happens at the transition 6P3/2↔62D5/2. We find the significant suppression of the phase noise of probe light at the higher frequency noise. Moreover, we observe the characteristics of the phase noise of the probe light varying with the power of the coupling light under the different detuning degrees of coupling light. In the red detuning side, the transferred phase noise of probe light decreases with the increase of coupling light power, which is different significantly from the scenario under the blue detuning condition. The ions produced in the ionization process of Rydberg atoms will form the local electric field that would cause the energy level of Rydberg states to shift. The investigation of the noise transfer between the coupling light and probe light in the Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency effect is important for understanding the coherence mechanism of ladder-type system and the some potential applications, such as in Rydberg-atom-based electric field metrology.

Atom Localization Using a Rydberg State

A theoretical study is presented for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) atom localization in a four-level atomic system involving a Rydberg state. The scheme is based on a mixture of two well-known V- and ladder-type systems illuminated by a weak probe field as well as control and switching laser beams of larger intensity, which could be standing waves. As a result of space-dependent atom− light interaction and due to the effect of Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency or Rydberg electromagnetically induced absorption, various 2D and 3D localization structures appear. Specifically, the detecting probability and precision of 2D and 3D atom localization can be remarkably enhanced through suitable adjusting the controlling parameters of the system. The proposed scheme may provide a promising approach to achieve high precision and perfect resolution 2D and 3D atom localization.

Tunable photonic band gaps and optical nonreciprocity by an RF-driving ladder-type system in moving optical lattice

We investigate photonic transport properties of the 1D moving optical lattices filled with vast cold atoms driven into a four-level ladder-type system and obtain dynamically controlled photonic bandgaps and optical nonreciprocity. It is found that the two obvious optical nonreciprocity can be generated at two well-developed photonic bandgaps based on double dark states in the presence of a radio-frequency field. However, when the radio-frequency field is absence, the only one induced photonic bandgaps with distinguishing optical nonreciprocity can be opened up via single dark state. Dynamic control of the induced photonic bandgaps and optical nonreciprocity could be exploited to achieve all-optical diodes and routing for quantum information networks.

Investigation of image characteristics in phase-contrast X-Ray imaging (PCXI)) using a conventional X-Ray grid

We theoretically investigate resonance fluorescence of a ladder- and a triangular-type three-level atomic system in the full quantization regime. By solving Heisenberg’s quantum kinetic equations of motion of an electron interacting with photons and two coherent laser fields, we obtain the firstorder electric field correlation function, which corresponds to photoluminescence spectrum. When the single electrons in both systems are resonantly excited by two strong cw-laser fields, in contrast to the ladder-type atomic systems emitting mainly incoherent photons, the triangular-type system shows that continuous coherent photons can be selectively generated from three optical transitions by trapping electronic population inversions and manipulated by changing the transition rates.

Scattering of few photons by a ladder-type quantum system

We consider the inelastic scattering of few photons by a ladder-type quantum system residing in a semi-infinite waveguide. Two scenarios, namely 2-photon scattering and 3-photon scattering, are investigated. The single photons are described by continuous temporal pulse functions, according to which the exact forms of the stationary output field states can be derived. Based on the exact analysis of the nonlinear dynamics, the spectral entanglement among the output photons mediated by the ladder-type quantum system is simulated. In the 2-photon scattering case, strong correlation between the output photons can be observed if each input photon is in resonance with a transition frequency of the system. In particular, there exists a weak two-photon process for the non-resonance case, where two input photons can couple to the transition between the first and third levels of the system if a two-photon resonance condition is satisfied. In the 3-photon scattering case, the presence of an ancillary photon could significantly influence the correlation pattern. There exist two nonlinear terms, one is for 2-photon inelastic scattering and the other for 3-photon inelastic scattering, in the 3-photon output state. As a result, both two-photon and three-photon processes can be observed in the pattern of spectral entanglement.

Effect of thermal motion on the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency

Atoms and molecules are always in random thermal motion, especially in gas system. This paper investigated the effect of thermal motion on Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). During this course, we adopt the theory of density matrix equation for the description of a ladder-type three-level system. The results showed that thermal motion will influence the appearance of EIT greatly and makes EIT is relate to temperature further. An obvious transparent window can be observed only when the temperature is less than 50K. With the increase of temperature, the depth of EIT window decreases quickly until to disappear. At room temperature, we can only see the double peaks of Aulter-Townes with strong coupling field. In addition, we have also observed an interesting phenomenon that with the increase of frequency detuning of the coupling field, the peak that is away from the resonant frequency will develop into an ultra narrow one. Thermal motion will make this narrow peak disappear. Just then, the height of the whole absorption profile increases and the line width of it decreases with the increase of frequency detuning.

Electric field effect on the impurity-related electromagnetically induced transparency in a quantum disk under non-resonant, intense laser radiation

By considering a three-level ladder-type system under electromagnetically induced transparency, the absorption and dispersion of the probe field in a GaAs disk-like quantum dot under simultaneous action of the electric field and non-resonant, intense laser radiation are investigated. We found that some characteristics such as the width of the transmission window and group velocity can be efficiently manipulated by tuning the control field intensity, non-resonant radiation amplitude and electric field strength. Our results may be relevant for future investigations of the optical process in semiconductor quantum structures and for the technological applications in solid- state optoelectronics.

Determination of the hyperfine coupling constants of the 5D5/2 state of 85Rb atoms by using high signal-to-noise ratio electromagnetically-induced transparency spectra

We report the hyperfine splitting measurement of the 85Rb 5D5/2 state by electromagnetically induced transparency spectroscopy with high signal-to-noise ratio in the 85Rb 5S1/2-5P3/2-5D5/2 ladder-type system (m 780 nm + 776 nm). The frequency calibration is performed by employing a phase-type electro-optic modulator with a confocal Fabry-Perot cavity. From the measured hyperfine splittings among the manifolds of (F=5), (F=4) and (F=3) of the 85Rb 5D5/2 state, we determine the magnetic dipole hyperfine coupling constant (A= (-2.222 0.019) MHz) and the quadrupole coupling constant (B= (2.664 0.130) MHz) of 5D5/2 state of 85Rb atoms.

Two-color cesium magneto-optical trap with 6S1/2-6P3/2-7S1/2 (852 nm?+?1470 nm) ladder-type system

A 1470 nm+852 nm two-color (TC) cesium (Cs) magneto-optical trap (MOT) with a 6S1/2-6P3/2-7S1/2 ladder-type system is proposed and experimentally investigated. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report about the 1470 nm+852 nm Cs TC-MOT. One of the three pairs of the 852 nm cooling and trapping beams (CTBs) in a conventional Cs MOT is replaced with a pair of the 1470 nm CTBs. Thus, the TC-MOT partially employs the optical radiation forces from photon scattering of the 6P3/2 (F′=5) −7S1/2 (F′′=4) excited-state transition (1470 nm). This TC-MOT can cool and trap Cs atoms on both the red- and blue-detuning sides of the two-photon resonance. This work may have applications in cooling and trapping of atoms using inconvenient wavelengths and background-free detection of cold and trapped Cs atoms.

Measurement of backscattered electric field of chipless radio frequency identification tag based on Rydberg atoms

Chipless radio frequency identification tags have been widely used in many areas, such as vehicle recognition and identification of goods. Near-field measurement of a chipless radio frequency identification tag is important for offering the precise spatial information of the backscattered field of tag. In this paper, we demonstrate the angle discrimination of a line-shape chipless radio-frequency identification tag via the near-field measurements of scattered electric fields in two orthogonal directions. Two laser beams with different frequencies counter propagate and pass through a roomtemperature caesium vapor. A Rydberg ladder-type system is formed in the experiment, which includes three levels, namely 6S1/2, 6P3/2, 51D5/2. The electromagnetically induced transparency of transmission of probe light, which is locked to the transition of 6S1/2↔ 6P3/2, is observed when the frequency of coupling light varies nearby the transition of 6P3/2↔ 51D5/2. When the 5.366 GHz microwave electric field that is resonant with the transition between two adjacent Rydberg states 51D5/2↔ 52P3/2 is applied to the caesium vapor cell by using a standard-gain horn antenna, the transmission signal of probe laser splits into two peaks, which is known as Autler-Townes splitting. The splitting between the transmission peaks is proportional to the microwave electric field strength at the position of laser beam. The spatial distribution of backscattered microwave electric field of the chipless radio-frequency identification tag is obtained through varying the position of the laser beam. The spatial resolution of near-field measurement approximately equals λMW/12, where λMW is the wavelength of the measured microwave electric field. The distributions of the electric field strength in two orthogonal directions show the clarity difference while the angle of radio-frequency identification tag is changed. The scattered electric field strength of the identification tag is strongest when the angle of line-shape tag is the same as that of the polarization of the horn antenna. Moreover, the scattered field strength of identification tag in the incident field direction of the horn antenna increases as the measured position and the identification tag get closer to each other. The scattered electric field distributions in the vertical direction are almost constant at the different angles between the incident electric filed and identification tag. The fluctuation of spatial distribution of the scattered electric field strength is attributed to the Fabry-Pérot effect of microwave electric field in the vapor cell. And the geometry of vapor cell results in the minor asymmetric distribution of scattered field. The simulation results from the electromagnetic simulation software are accordant with the experimental results. The novel approach to near-field measurement of identification tag will contribute to studying and designing the chipless radio-frequency identification tag and complex circuits.

Measurement of the fine structure of cesium Rydberg state

The spectra of Rydberg atoms are of great significance for studying the energy levels of Rydberg atoms and the interaction between neutral atoms, especially, the high-precision spectra of Rydberg atoms can be used to measure the energy level shifts of Rydberg atoms resulting from the dipole-dipole interactions in room-temperature vapor cells. In this paper we report the preparation of cesium Rydberg states based on the cascaded two-photon excitation of 509 nm laser and 852 nm laser in opposite, and the measurements of the fine structure of cesium Rydberg states. In this experiment, the 509 nm laser is generated by the cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generation from 1018 nm laser with a periodically-poled KTP crystal and has a maximum power of about 1 W, and the 852 nm probe laser is provided by an external-cavity diode laser with a maximum output power of 5 mW and a typical linewidth of 1 MHz. By scanning the frequency of 509 nm coupling laser, it is presented that the Doppler-free spectra based on electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) of 509 nm coupling laser and 852 nm probe laser. The velocity-selective EIT spectra are used to study the spectral splitting of 6S1/26P3/257S(D) ladder-type system of cesium Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell. The powers of 852 nm probe laser and 509 nm coupling laser are 0.3 upW and 200 mW, respectively. Their waist radii are both approximately 50 m. The intervals of hyperfine splitting of the intermediate state 6P3/2(F'=3, 4, 5) and fine splitting of 57D3/2 and 57D5/2 Rydberg states are measured by a frequency calibrating. Concretely, the velocity-selective spectrum with a radio frequency (RF) modulation of 30 MHz is used as a reference to calibrate the Rydberg fine-structure states in the hot vapor cell, where the RF frequency precision is smaller than a hertz on long time scales and the EIT linewidth is smaller than 13 MHz. The experimental value of the fine structure splitting of 57D3/2 and 57D5/2 Rydberg states is (354.72.5) MHz, that is in consistence with the value of 346.8 MHz calculated by Rydberg-Ritz equation and quantum defects of 57D3/2 and 57D5/2 Rydberg states. The experimental values of hyperfine splitting of intermediate state 6P3/2(F'=3, 4, 5) are also coincident with the theoretical calculated values. The dominant discrepancy existing between the experimental and calculated results may arise from the nonlinear correspondence of the PZT while the 509 nm wavelength cavity is scanned, and the measurement accuracy influenced by the spectral linewidth. The velocity-selective spectroscopy technique can also be used to measure the energy level shifts caused by the interactions of Rydberg atoms.

Noise correlations controlled by dressed suppression and enhancement

The intensity noise correlations between anti-Stokes and Stokes fields, generated from spontaneous parametric four-wave mixing (SP-FWM) process have been investigated in a ladder-type three-level system of sodium atomic vapor. By introduction of an external dressing field, the strengthened (weakened) correlations are obtained under enhancement (suppression) condition of SP-FWM. Besides, sharp correlations have been obtained as attributed to a pair of non-classical beams generated from amplified spontaneous emission.

Influence of self-phase modulation on coherent effects in five-level system

The possibility of formation of a coherent dark state in the five-level system in the entire volume of the medium in an adiabatic pulse propagation is investigated. It is shown that the dark state formation is independent on the value of the first two-photon detuning from the resonance, which may be changed during the propagation in the medium. In the case of the M-type system with the equal strengths of oscillators at the extreme transitions it is shown that the self-phase modulation does not influence the coherent effects while in the ladder-type system it may lead to the destruction of the dark state. The estimation of the length of the medium in which the propagation effects are negligible is obtained.

Coherent population transfer between uncoupled or weakly coupled states in ladder-type superconducting qutrits

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage offers significant advantages for coherent population transfer between uncoupled or weakly coupled states and has the potential of realizing efficient quantum gate, qubit entanglement and quantum information transfer. Here we report on the realization of the process in the superconducting Xmon and phase qutrits—two ladder-type three-level systems in which the ground state population is coherently transferred to the second excited state via the dark state subspace. We demonstrate that the population transfer efficiency is no less than 96% and 67% for the two devices, which agree well with the numerical simulation of the master equation. Population transfer via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage is significantly more robust against variations of the experimental parameters compared with that via the conventional resonant π pulse method. Our work opens up a new venue for exploring the process for quantum information processing using the superconducting artificial atoms.

ChemInform Abstract: Conversion of 2‐Iodobiaryls into 2,2′‐Diiodobiaryls via Oxidation‐Iodination Sequences: A Versatile Route to Ladder‐Type Heterofluorenes.

AbstractThe two‐step method yields 2,2‐diiodobiaryls from 2‐iodobiaryls through an oxidative cyclization/copper‐catalyzed iodinative ring‐opening sequence.