Probing an excited-state atomic transition using hyperfine quantum beat spectroscopy

Abstract

We describe a method to observe the dynamics of an excited-state transition in a room temperature atomic vapor using hyperfine quantum beats. Our experiment using cesium atoms consists of a pulsed excitation of the D2 transition, and continuous-wave driving of an excited-state transition from the 6P${}_{3/2}$ state to the 7S${}_{1/2}$ state. We observe quantum beats in the fluorescence from the 6P${}_{3/2}$ state which are modified by the driving of the excited-state transition. The Fourier spectrum of the beat signal yields evidence of Autler-Townes splitting of the 6P${}_{3/2}$, F = 5 hyperfine level and Rabi oscillations on the excited-state transition. A detailed model provides qualitative agreement with the data, giving insight to the physical processes involved.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Coherent storage and manipulation of broadband photons via dynamically controlled Autler-Townes splitting
• Single-photon interference due to motion in an atomic collective excitation
• Observation of vacuum-induced collective quantum beats
• Dressed-state electromagnetically induced transparency for light storage in uniform phase spin-waves