Radiation pressure on single atoms: generalization of an exact analytical approach to multilevel atoms

TL;DR

This paper extends an exact analytical formalism for calculating radiation pressure from two-level atoms to multilevel atoms, incorporating degeneracy and light polarization through a matrix approach.

Contribution

The authors develop a matrix formalism to generalize the previous two-level atom model to multilevel atoms with degeneracy and polarization effects.

Findings

Provides a comprehensive analytical framework for multilevel atoms

Enables precise calculation of radiation forces in complex atomic systems

Facilitates future research in atom-light interactions with multilevel structures

Abstract

In a recent work, we provided a standardized and exact analytical formalism for computing in the semiclassical regime the radiation force experienced by a two-level atom interacting with any number of plane waves with arbitrary intensities, frequencies, phases, and propagation directions [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B \textbf{35}, 127-132 (2018)]. Here, we extend this treatment to the multilevel atom case, where degeneracy of the atomic levels is considered and polarization of light enters into play. A matrix formalism is developed to this aim.