Coherent trapping of a three-level atom in a circularly polarized light

Using semiclassical theory, we study coherent trapping of a three-level atom, where the atom possesses a momentum of its center-of-mass motion and is irradiated only by a classical circularly polarized electromagnetic wave. We find that if the atom is initially in a coherent trapping state of it, under the zero- or first-order approximation, the atom is absolutely or nearly in the state hereafter.     

Modified spontaneous emission spectra of a three-level V-type atom in photonic crystals

We introduce a modified density of modes to investigate the spontaneous emission spectrum of a three-level V-type atom in photonic crystal using Laplace transform. The atom’s steady state behavior of spontaneous emission is treated for different locations of the upper band-edge frequency. Furthermore; the influence of quantum interference between the two decay channels on spontaneous emission is discussed.     

Spontaneous emission from a Λ three-level atom in an anisotropic photonic crystal

The spontaneous emission properties of a Λ type atom embedded in a three-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystal are investigated. Only one of the two atomic transition frequencies is considered near the photonic band edge. The atomic decay properties such as the time-evolution of the excited-state population and the instant and effective decay rates are studied in detail. It is found that there exists a wide region for the difference of the transition frequency from the band edge, in which only diffusion fields with frequencies being near or far away from the band edge appear in the emitted field. The spontaneous emitted field and its spectrum depend not only on the detuning of the transition frequency from the band edge, but also on the distance from the atom. Therefore, during the propagating process, the propagating field is partially transferred into the diffusion field.     

Entanglement and nonclassicality evolution of the atom in a squeezed vacuum

As an important parameter, von Neumann entropy has been used to characterize the entanglement between atom and light field. We discussed the entanglement and nonclassicality evolution of an atom in a squeezed vacuum—a typical nonclassical field, and compare it with that of the coherent state. It shows that the atom-field entanglement in squeezed vacuum is much stronger and stabler than that in coherent state, whereas the nonclassicality of the light field depends on its initial status. This investigation is trying to find a new insight into the relation between entanglement of atom-field system and nonclassicality of light fields. The result shows that the entanglement between the atom and the field can be maintained well in the squeezed vacuum and this implies better control of atom and photon mutually.     

Stimulated emission of a laser photon by the excited states of a three-level atom

We study the stimulated emission spectra arising from the emission of a laser photon by two excited states of a three-level atom interacting with a laser field at low intensities. The lifetimes of the stimulated photons emitted by the two excited states are much longer than those emitted spontaneously, while the intensities of the induced peaks take negative values indicating that amplification occurs at low frequencies. The ratio of the intensities of the light emitted by the excited states |3 > and |2 > of the atom is proportional to (₃/₂)^1/2, where ₃ and ₂ are the radiative decay rates of the spontaneously emitted photons by the excited states |3 > and |2 > into the ground state |1 > of the atom, respectively. An absorption spectrum is induced into the ground state of the atom by the laser field. The competition between induced absorption and stimulated emission at low frequencies without population inversion is considered in the low-intensity limit of the laser field. It is shown that for values of ₃/₂ > 1 the relative intensity (height) of the induced peak takes positive values implying that the process of the induced absorption dominates. As the ratio ₃/₂ increases, the height of the induced peak decreases and vanishes for values of ₃/₂ < 400. For values of ₃/₂ > 400, the height of the induced peak becomes negative indicating that the process of the stimulated emission (amplification) is likely to occur at low frequencies. The computed spectra are graphically presented and discussed.Issued as NRCC No. 39088     

Relaxation- and decoherence-free subspaces in networks of weakly and strongly coupled resonators

We consider a network of interacting resonators and analyze the physical ingredients that enable the emergence of relaxation-free and decoherence-free subspaces. We investigate two different situations: (i) when the whole network interacts with a common reservoir and (ii) when each resonator, strongly coupled to each other, interacts with its own reservoir. Our main result is that both subspaces are generated when all the resonators couple with the same group of reservoir modes, thus building up a correlation (among these modes), which has the potential to shield particular network states against relaxation and/or decoherence.     

Two-photon revival-collapse phenomenon in the evolution of the quadrature squeezing of the four-photon Jaynes-Cummings model

We prove that the revival-collapse phenomenon occurring in the atomic inversion of the two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model, when the mode is initially prepared in the coherent state and the atom is in the excited state, can be obtained from the evolution of the quadrature squeezing of the four-photon Jaynes-Cummings model.     

Microwave control of spontaneous emission of a driven four-level atom in photonic crystals

We study the coherent control of spontaneous emission of a double-driven four-level atom embedded in photonic crystals. Combined effect of different relative locations between the upper band edge and the two upper levels and the phase of microwave coupling field is discussed. It is shown that quantum interference effect such as laser-induced dark line depends strongly on the phase of microwave field.     

Interactions of a two-level atom and a field with a time-varying frequency without rotating-wave approximation

The interactions between a two-level atom and a field with a time-varying frequency without rotating-wave approximation have been investigated. The frequency of the field varies in the form of rectangle. The dynamic behaviors of the atomic population inversion, photon anti-bunching and atomic dipole squeezing are investigated numerically as function of time. A number of novel phenomena are discovered and discussed.     

Decoherence in strongly coupled quantum oscillators

In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the coherence phenomenon of two coupled dissipative oscillators. The action of a classical driving field on one of the oscillators is also analyzed. Master equations are derived for both regimes of weakly and strongly interacting oscillators from which interesting results arise concerning the coherence properties of the joint and the reduced system states. The strong coupling regime is required to achieve a large frequency shift of the oscillator normal modes, making it possible to explore the whole profile of the spectral density of the reservoirs. We show how the decoherence process may be controlled by shifting the normal mode frequencies to regions of small spectral density of the reservoirs. Different spectral densities of the reservoirs are considered and their effects on the decoherence process are analyzed. For oscillators with different damping rates, we show that the worse-quality system is improved and vice versa, a result which could be useful for quantum state protection. State recurrence and swap dynamics are analyzed as well as their roles in delaying the decoherence process.     

Optical switching by controlling the double-dark resonances in a N-tripod five-level atom

We have investigated the optical switching in a five-level atom in a novel configuration of electromagnetically induced transparency. This N-tripod type level scheme combines the attractive features of cross-phase modulation appearing in N-type atoms with the ability to slow light pulses associated with tripod atoms. The addition of a new driving field to the usual tripod configuration allows to control the double-dark resonances which appear in the four-level tripod system and thus enables to manipulate the probe absorption and dispersion properties. We have studied the temporal dynamics of two pulses, a probe pulse and a switch propagating pulse through the sample. In the presence of the switching field, a deep in the absorption at resonance due to one-photon electromagnetically induced transparency appears and the atomic system is transparent to the probe field, which propagates at a very small group velocity. By tuning the fields, one of the usual double-dark resonances appearing in tripod system can be controlled (Stark-shifted) and the medium, which is transparent in the absence of the control field, will become highly absorptive. The linear and cross-phase modulation susceptibilities have been calculated and we predict the possibility to realize two-photon switching and giant cross-phase modulation. Finally we address the question about the generation of an entangled coherent state and we show that the giant cross-phase modulation provided by this N-tripod atomic system can be used for realizing polarization quantum phase gates.     

Coherent hole-burnings induced by a bichromatic laser field

In a Doppler-broadened three-level Λ-type system driven simultaneously by a coupling laser and two equal-amplitude saturating laser fields with a frequency difference 2δ, the absorption spectrum of a weak probe laser exhibits multiple deep spectral holes through coherent hole-burning CHB with controllable numbers, widths, depths, and positions. More significant, changing δ or lasers directions, CHBs can degenerate into narrower and deeper spectral holes where the slope of the refractive index is very steep. The multiple narrow spectral holes in a single absorption profile are expected to have potential applications in high density storage, optical information processes, and slow-light.     

Decoherence in atom–field interactions: A treatment using superoperator techniques

Decoherence is a subject of great importance in quantum mechanics, particularly in the fields of quantum optics, quantum information processing and quantum computing. Quantum computation relies heavily in the unitary character of each step carried out by a quantum computational device and this unitarity is affected by decoherence. An extensive study of master equations is therefore needed for a better understanding on how quantum information is processed when a system interacts with its environment. Master equations are usually studied by using Fokker–Planck and Langevin equations and not much attention has been given to the use of superoperator techniques. In this report we study in detail several approaches that lead to decoherence, for instance a variation of the Schrödinger equation that models decoherence as the system evolves through intrinsic mechanisms beyond conventional quantum mechanics rather than dissipative interaction with an environment. For the study of the dissipative interaction we use a correspondence principle approach. We solve the master equations for different physical systems, namely, Kerr and parametric down conversion. In the case of light-matter interaction we show that although dissipation destroys the quantumness of the field, information of the initial field may be obtained via the reconstruction of quasiprobability distribution functions.     

Frequency-filtered parametric fluorescence interacting with an atomic ensemble

The frequency spectrum of the fluorescence must be reduced when studying interactions between atoms and parametric fluorescence using the photon counting method since photon counting does not distinguish the light frequency. An interference filter and etalons successfully reduced the frequency spectrum of the parametric fluorescence from 6.6 THz to 1.7 GHz. The parametric fluorescence after frequency filtering showed the non-classical feature violating a Cauchy-Schwartz inequality for the intensity correlation function. We used slow light propagation with Rb gas to demonstrate that the obtained light source interacts with the atoms.     

Electromagnetically induced transparency and light slowdown for Λ-like systems with a structured continuum

Electric susceptibility of a laser-dressed atomic medium is calculated for a model Λ-like system including two lower states and a continuum structured by a presence of an autoionizing state or a continuum with a laser-induced structure. Depending on the strength of a control field, it is possible to obtain a significant reduction of the light velocity in a narrow frequency window in the conditions of a small absorption. It is shown that increasing the values of the asymmetry parameters leads to an increase of the values of both real and imaginary parts of the medium susceptibility and to an increase of the width of the transparency window, compared with the case of a flat continuum. A smooth transition is shown between the case of a flat continuum and that of a discrete state serving as the upper state of a Λ system.     

Realization of a single-beam mini magneto-optical trap: A candidate for compact CPT cold atom-clocks

We have demonstrated the experimental realization of a single-beam mini magneto-optical trap of ⁸⁷Rb atoms, originally designed for a cold atom-clock with coherent population trapping (CPT). Only one beam is used as cooling, trapping and repumping beams rather than the three pairs of orthogonal beams of the standard magneto-optical trap. The core optics, which consists of a modified pyramidal funnel type mirror, a quarter-wave plate and a retroreflect mirror, is installed inside a mini titanium cubic chamber. The vacuum system, rubidium source, magnetic field coils and beam expander are designed in a compact geometry. As many as 1.1 × 10⁷ rubidium atoms are cooled and trapped, and thus the mini trap is ready for the implementation of a novel compact coherent population trapping cold atom-clock.     

Single atom entropy squeezing for two two-level atoms interacting with a binomial field

In this paper we consider a system of two two-level atoms interacting with a binomial field in an ideal cavity. We investigate the time evolution of the single atom entropy squeezing, atomic inversion and the linear entropy for the present system. Furthermore, the relationship between the entropy squeezing and the entanglement is investigated. It is shown that the amounts of the nonclassical effects exhibited in the entropy squeezing are dependent on the different initial conditions. The entropy squeezing can give information on the corresponding linear entropy.     

A semi-classical approach to two-frequency solitons in a three-level cascade atomic system

A semi-classical theory of two intense optical fields interacting with a third-order non-linear medium composed of a three-level cascade atomic system is presented. It is predicted that non-linear atom-field interactions allow the formation of two-frequency bright, dark and grey spatial solitons. We demonstrate through numerical simulations and analytic stability analysis that the bright and grey solitons are stable.     

A degenerate three-level laser with a parametric amplifier

The aim of this paper is to study the squeezing and statistical properties of the light produced by a degenerate three-level laser whose cavity contains a degenerate parametric amplifier. In this quantum optical system the top and bottom levels of the three-level atoms injected into the laser cavity are coupled by the pump mode emerging from the parametric amplifier. For a linear gain coefficient of 100 and for a cavity damping constant of 0.8, the maximum intracavity squeezing is found at steady state and at threshold to be 93%.