Ultrahigh-Quality Magneto-Optical Resonances of Electromagnetically Induced Absorption in a Buffer-Gas-Filled Vapor Cell

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel experimental setup for observing high-contrast, narrow magneto-optical resonances of electromagnetically induced absorption in a buffer-gas-filled vapor cell, with promising applications in quantum technologies.

Contribution

The authors introduce a new configuration for EIA resonance observation that achieves high contrast and narrow linewidths simultaneously in alkali vapor cells.

Findings

Achieved a contrast of 57.7% with a 7.2 mG FWHM in rubidium vapor.

Obtained a contrast-to-width ratio exceeding 100%, the best reported for EIA.

Demonstrated potential applications in quantum metrology and nonlinear optics.

Abstract

A new configuration for observation of magneto-optical subnatural-linewidth resonances of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in alkali vapor has been verified experimentally. The configuration includes using two counter-propagating pump and probe light waves with mutually orthogonal linear polarizations, exciting an open optical transition of an alkali atom in the presence of a buffer gas. The main advantage of the novel observation scheme consists in the possibility of obtaining simultaneously high-contrast and quite narrow nonlinear signals. Here a 2.5-cm long rubidium-87 vapor cell filled with Ar buffer gas is used, and the excited optical transition is the F$_g$=2 $\to$ F$_e$=1 of the D$_1$ line. The signals registered reach a contrast of 57.7% with a FWHM of 7.2 mG. The contrast with respect to a wide Doppler pedestal well exceeds 100%. To our knowledge, to date this is the best result for EIA resonances in terms of contrast-to-width ratio. In general, the results demonstrate that the new magneto-optical scheme has very good prospects for various applications in quantum metrology, nonlinear optics and photonics.