Multiple scattering of light in cold atomic clouds with a magnetic field

Abstract

Starting from a microscopic theory for atomic scatterers, we describe the scattering of light by a single atom and study the coherent propagation of light in a cold atomic cloud in the presence of a magnetic field B in the mesoscopic regime. Non-pertubative expressions in B are given for the magneto-optical effects and optical anisotropy. We then consider the multiple scattering regime and address the fate of the coherent backscattering (CBS) effect. We show that, for atoms with nonzero spin in their ground state, the CBS interference contrast can be increased compared to its value when B=0, a result at variance with classical samples. We validate our theoretical results by a quantitative comparison with experimental data.

16 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Direct observation of Anderson localization of matter-waves in a controlled disorder
• Localization of ultrasound in a three-dimensional elastic network
• Between a metal and an insulator: the critical state of the Anderson transition
• Light transport in cold atoms and thermal decoherence
• Alignment dynamics of slow light diffusion in ultracold atomic ${}^{85}$Rb

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Magnetic-field-driven localization of light in a cold-atom gas
• Control of light trapping in a large atomic system by a static magnetic field
• Localization transition for light scattering by cold atoms in an external magnetic field
• Linear and nonlinear magneto-optical rotation on the narrow strontium intercombination line