2025/10/09 by Jonah Quirk, Quirk, Jonah A., Carol E. Tanner +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.08205
openalex publication_date 2025/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report a new method of two-pathway coherent control using three narrow-band cw laser sources, phase locked in an optical phase-lock loop, to maintain the high degree of optical coherence required for the coherent control process. In addition, we derive expressions for two-photon transition amplitudes and demonstrate their dependence on the polarization of the field components. This phase-locking technique expands the set of interactions to which coherent control techniques may be applied. It also allows for a constant low-frequency offset between the optical interactions, producing a continuous and constant phase ramp between the interactions, facilitating phase-sensitive detection of the modulating atomic signal. We illustrate this technique with two-photon vs.~one-photon excitation of a ΔF = 1 component, and alternatively a ΔF = 0 component, of the 6s 2S1/2 → 7s 2S1/2 transition of atomic cesium.