Measuring the time atoms spend in the excited state due to a photon they don't absorb

TL;DR

This study measures the duration atoms spend in excited states caused by transmitted photons, revealing that even non-absorbed photons can induce excitation due to coherent effects, using ultra-cold Rubidium atoms and nonlinear phase shift detection.

Contribution

It demonstrates that transmitted photons can cause atomic excitation without absorption, highlighting the role of coherent forward emission in quantum light-matter interactions.

Findings

Atoms spend ~77% of the excitation time caused by incident photons.

Excitation occurs even when photons are not absorbed, due to coherent effects.

The method uses nonlinear phase shift detection to measure atomic excitation.

Abstract

When a resonant photon traverses a sample of absorbing atoms, how much time do atoms spend in the excited state? Does the answer depend on whether the photon is ultimately absorbed or transmitted? In particular, if it is $\textit{not}$ absorbed, does it cause atoms to spend any time in the excited state, and if so, how much? In an experiment with ultra-cold Rubidium atoms, we simultaneously record whether atoms are excited by incident ("signal") photons and whether those photons are transmitted. We measure the time spent by atoms in the excited state by using a separate, off-resonant "probe" laser to monitor the index of refraction of the sample - that is, we measure the nonlinear phase shift written by a signal pulse on this probe beam - and use direct detection to isolate the effect of single transmitted photons. For short pulses (10 ns, to be compared to the 26 ns atomic lifetime) and an optically thick medium (peak OD = 4, leading to 60% absorption given our broad bandwidth), we find that the average time atoms spend in the excited state due to one transmitted photon is not zero, but rather (77 $\pm$ 16)% of the time the average incident photon causes them to spend in the excited state. We attribute this observation of "excitation without loss" to coherent forward emission, which can arise when the instantaneous Rabi frequency (pulse envelope) picks up a phase flip - this happens naturally when a broadband pulse propagates through an optically thick medium with frequency-dependent absorption [1]. These results unambiguously reveal the complex history of photons as they propagate through an absorbing medium and illustrate the power of utilizing post-selection to experimentally investigate the past behaviour of observed quantum systems.