Atomic Coherence Based Electromagnetic Wave Interferometry
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Date
2023
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Abstract
This thesis reports on the theoretical and experimental studies of closed loop multi-level
systems, where electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is dependent on the
phase difference between the electromagnetic fields forming the loop. We first theoretically investigate a scheme to develop an atomic-based microwave (MW) interferometry in Rb, based on a six-level loopy ladder system involving the Rydberg states in which two excitation pathways interfere constructively or destructively depending on the phase between the MW electric fields closing the loop. Then we compared the field strength sensitivity to previous demonstrations on MW electrometry employing Rydberg atomic states, this is two orders of magnitude more sensitive to field strength. Because previously investigated atomic systems are only sensitive to field strength but not to phase, this scheme offers a great opportunity to characterize the MW completely, including the propagation direction and wavefront. Currently, we do not have the experimental facility for Rydberg excitation so we cannot conduct the experiment of the above theoretically proposed work. However, we could demonstrate the phase-dependent EIT in the different configurations of a closed loop double-lambda system at 780 nm and 420 nm transitions in 87Rb at room temperature.
For the MW field measurements, the sensitivity can be improved by employing the cold atoms because cold atoms reduce the Doppler mismatch between the 780 nm probe and 480 nm control fields and also minimizes the collisions and transit time dephasing effect.
Taking this into consideration, we have also set up the cold atom experiments and so far,
we have characterized the 85Rb atoms in the MOT using the 5S1/2(F = 3) → 5P3/2(F =
4) broad cyclic IR transition at 780 nm where we trap around 1.5×108 number of atoms
at a typical temperature of 500 μK.
In laser cooling and trapping experiments, the temperature of the cold atoms is sensitive
to the lock point of the laser fields. The laser locking can have an offset from the
line center of the transition which depends upon the linewidth of the transition. In order
to determine the laser lock o set on a particular atomic transition, we also present an
experimental study on the effect of detuning on a velocity-induced population oscillation
(VIPO) dip which is used to precisely determine the lock point with an uncertainty of
around 100 kHz.
Description
Supervisor: Pandey, Kanhaiya
Keywords
Atomic Coherence, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), Atom Based MW Interferometry