Interference between two resonant transitions with distinct initial and final states connected by radiative decay

Abstract

The resonant line shape from driving a transition between two states, $|\mathrm{a}⟩$ and $|\mathrm{b}⟩$, can be distorted due to a quantum-mechanical interference effect involving a resonance between two different states, $|\mathrm{c}⟩$ and $|\mathrm{d}⟩$, if $|\mathrm{c}⟩$ has a decay path to $|\mathrm{a}⟩$ and $|\mathrm{d}⟩$ has a decay path to $|\mathrm{b}⟩$. This interference can cause a shift of the measured resonance, despite the fact that the two resonances do not have a common initial or final state. As an example, we demonstrate that such a shift affects measurements of the atomic hydrogen 2S${}_{1/2}$-to-2P${}_{1/2}$ Lamb-shift transition due to 3S-to-3P transitions if the 3S${}_{1/2}$ state has some initial population.

4 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Muonic hydrogen and the proton radius puzzle
• The Proton Radius Puzzle
• Quantum interference and light polarization effects in unresolvable atomic lines: application to a precise measurement of the 6,7 Li D2 lines
• A tabulation of the bound-state energies of atomic hydrogen
• Quantum interference effects in laser spectroscopy of muonic hydrogen, deuterium, and helium-3
• Quantum interference shifts in laser spectroscopy with elliptical polarization
• Cross-damping effects in 1S-3S spectroscopy of hydrogen and deuterium
• Master equation for high-precision spectroscopy

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Precision measurement of the Lamb shift in Muonium
• Heading-error-free optical atomic magnetometry in the Earth-field range
• Systematic effects important to separated-oscillatory-field measurements of the $n$$=$$2$ Lamb shift in atomic hydrogen
• Quantum interference in laser spectroscopy of highly charged lithiumlike ions
• Master equation for multilevel interference in a superradiant medium