Transition from electromagnetically induced transparency to Autler-Townes splitting in cold cesium atoms

TL;DR

This study investigates the transition between electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting in cold cesium atoms, providing a detailed characterization of the regimes and their spectral features.

Contribution

It presents experimental and theoretical analysis of EIT and ATS spectra in a cold-atom three-level system, delineating the transition criteria based on spectral linewidths and Rabi frequencies.

Findings

EIT linewidth depends on laser linewidth and Rabi frequencies.

ATS splitting scales linearly with the coupling Rabi frequency.

Experimental results agree with numerical solutions of the Master equation.

Abstract

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Aulter-Townes splitting (ATS) are two similar yet distinct phenomena that modify the transmission of a weak probe field through an absorption medium in the presence of a coupling field, featured in a variety of three-level atomic systems. In many applications it is important to distinguish EIT from ATS splitting. We present EIT and ATS spectra in a cold-atom three-level cascade system, involving the 35$S_{1/2}$ Rydberg state of cesium. The EIT linewidth, $\gamma_{EIT}$, defined as the full width at half maximum (FWHM), and the ATS splitting, $\gamma_{ATS}$, defined as the peak-to-peak distance between AT peak pairs, are used to delineate the EIT and ATS regimes and to characterize the transition between the regimes. In the cold-atom medium, in the weak-coupler (EIT) regime $\gamma_{EIT}$ $\approx$ A + B($\Omega_{c}^2$ + $\Omega_{p}^2)/\Gamma_{eg}$, where $\Omega_{c}$ and $\Omega_{p}$ are the coupler and probe Rabi frequencies, $\Gamma_{eg}$ is the spontaneous decay rate of the intermediate 6P$_{3/2}$ level, and parameters $A$ and $B$ that depend on the laser linewidth. We explore the transition into the strong-coupler (ATS) regime, which is characterized by the linear relation $\gamma_{ATS}$ $\approx$ $\Omega_{c}$. The experiments are in agreement with numerical solutions of the Master equation.