ElecSus: Extension to arbitrary geometry magneto-optics

TL;DR

ElecSus is a computational tool for predicting the optical properties of alkali-metal vapors, now extended to handle arbitrary magnetic field orientations and improved with a user-friendly interface.

Contribution

The paper introduces a major update to ElecSus, enabling support for non-axial magnetic fields and enhancing its applicability and usability.

Findings

Accurately models electric susceptibility under arbitrary magnetic field orientations.

Demonstrates agreement with experimental data across new application scenarios.

Provides a more accessible graphical user interface.

Abstract

We present a major update to ElecSus, a computer program and underlying model to calculate the electric susceptibility of an alkali-metal atomic vapour. Knowledge of the electric susceptibility of a medium is essential to predict its absorptive and dispersive properties. In this version we implement several changes which significantly extend the range of applications of ElecSus, the most important of which is support for non-axial magnetic fields (i.e. fields which are not aligned with the light propagation axis). Suporting this change requires a much more general approach to light propagation in the system, which we have now implemented. We exemplify many of these new applications by comparing ElecSus to experimental data. In addition, we have developed a graphical user interface front-end which makes the program much more accessible, and have improved on several other minor areas of the program structure.