2017/07/03 by A. Tonoyan, Tonoyan, A., A. Sargsyan +13
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Strong Light-Matter Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1707.00688
openalex publication_date 2017/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this letter we demonstrate universal symmetry breaking by means of magnetically induced circular dichroism. Magnetic field induces forbidden at zero field atomic transitions between ΔF = ±2 hyperfine levels. In a particular range of magnetic field, intensities of these transitions experience significant enhancement. We have deduced a general rule applicable for the D2 lines of all bosonic alkali atoms, that is transition intensity enhancement is larger for the case of σ+ than for σ- excitation for ΔF = +2, whereas it is larger (e.g. up to 1011 times for 85Rb atoms) in the case of σ- than for σ+ polarization for ΔF = -2. This asymmetric behaviour results in an explicit circular dichroism. For experimental verification we employed half-wavelength-thick atomic vapor nanocells using a derivative of selective reflection technique, which provides sub-Doppler spectroscopic linewidth (∼50 MHz). The presented theoretical curves well describe the experimental results. This effect can find applications particularly in parity violation experiments.