Engineering atomic polarization with microwave-assisted optical pumping

Abstract

Polarized atomic ensembles play a crucial role in precision measurements. We demonstrate a novel method of creating atomic polarization in an alkali vapor in a continuous-wave regime. The method relies on a combination of optical pumping by a laser beam and microwave transitions due to a cavity-enhanced magnetic field. With this approach, atomic internal angular momentum can be oriented along a static magnetic field at an arbitrary angle with respect to the laser beam. Furthermore, the atomic polarization depends on the microwave parameters, which can be used for microwave-to-optical transduction and microwave-controlled nonlinear magneto-optical rotation.

6 pages, 4 figures; plus Supplemental Materials of 6 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

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• Quantum Physics Meets Music: A "Real-Time" Guitar Recording Using Rydberg-Atoms and Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
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