arXiv subjects

Ifan G. Hughes

Publications and source records attributed to Ifan G. Hughes.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Four-wave mixing in a non-degenerate four-level diamond configuration in the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime

We present an experimental study of seeded four-wave mixing (4WM) using a diamond excitation scheme (with states from the 5S$_{1/2}$, 5P$_{1/2}$, 5P$_{3/2}$ and 5D$_{3/2}$ terms) in a thermal vapour of $^{87}$Rb atoms. We investigate the 4WM spectra under the application of a strong magnetic field (0.6 T). The Zeeman interaction is strong enough to realise the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime, which has the effect of separating the optical transitions by more than the Doppler width, thereby significantly simplifying the spectral features. We show that this facilitates a quantitative comparison, even in the regime of strong dressing, between experimental data and a simple theoretical model based only on four-level optical Bloch equations.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

ElecSus: Extension to arbitrary geometry magneto-optics

We present a major update to ElecSus, a computer program and underlying model to calculate the electric susceptibility of an alkali-metal atomic vapour. Knowledge of the electric susceptibility of a medium is essential to predict its absorptive and dispersive properties. In this version we implement several changes which significantly extend the range of applications of ElecSus, the most important of which is support for non-axial magnetic fields (i.e. fields which are not aligned with the light propagation axis). Suporting this change requires a much more general approach to light propagation in the system, which we have now implemented. We exemplify many of these new applications by comparing ElecSus to experimental data. In addition, we have developed a graphical user interface front-end which makes the program much more accessible, and have improved on several other minor areas of the program structure.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

Single-photon interference due to motion in an atomic collective excitation

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of heralded bi-chromatic single photons from an atomic collective spin excitation (CSE). The photon arrival times display collective quantum beats, a novel interference effect resulting from the relative motion of atoms in the CSE. A combination of velocity-selective excitation with strong laser dressing and the addition of a magnetic field allows for exquisite control of this collective beat phenomenon. The present experiment uses a diamond scheme with near-IR photons that can be extended to include telecommunications-wavelengths or modified to allow storage and retrieval in an inverted-Y scheme.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

Selective reflection from Rb layer with thickness below $λ$/12 and applications

We have studied the peculiarities of selective reflection from Rb vapor cell with thickness $L <$ 70 nm, which is over an order of magnitude smaller than the resonant wavelength for Rb atomic D$_1$ line $λ$ = 795 nm. A huge ($\approx$ 240 MHz) red shift and spectral broadening of reflection signal is recorded for $L =$ 40 nm caused by the atom-surface interaction. Also completely frequency resolved hyperfine Paschen-Back splitting of atomic transitions to four components for $^{87}$Rb and six components for $^{85}$Rb is recorded in strong magnetic field ($B >$ 2 kG).

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

An $\mathbfε$-pseudoclassical model for quantum resonances in a cold dilute atomic gas periodically driven by finite-duration standing-wave laser pulses

Atom interferometers are a useful tool for precision measurements of fundamental physical phenomena, ranging from local gravitational field strength to the atomic fine structure constant. In such experiments, it is desirable to implement a high momentum transfer "beam-splitter," which may be achieved by inducing quantum resonance in a finite-temperature laser-driven atomic gas. We use Monte Carlo simulations to investigate these quantum resonances in the regime where the gas receives laser pulses of finite duration, and demonstrate that an $ε$-classical model for the dynamics of the gas atoms is capable of reproducing quantum resonant behavior for both zero-temperature and finite-temperature non-interacting gases. We show that this model agrees well with the fully quantum treatment of the system over a time-scale set by the choice of experimental parameters. We also show that this model is capable of correctly treating the time-reversal mechanism necessary for implementing an interferometer with this physical configuration.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Absolute absorption on the potassium D lines:theory and experiment

We present a detailed study of the absolute Doppler-broadened absorption of a probe beam scanned across the potassium D lines in a thermal vapour. Spectra using a weak probe were measured on the 4S $\rightarrow$ 4P transition and compared to the theoretical model of the electric susceptibility detailed by Zentile et al. (2015) in the code named ElecSus. Comparisons were also made on the 4S $\rightarrow$ 5P transition with an adapted version of ElecSus. This is the first experimental test of ElecSus on an atom with a ground state hyperfine splitting smaller than that of the Doppler width. An excellent agreement was found between ElecSus and experimental measurements at a variety of temperatures with rms errors of $\sim 10^{-3}$. We have also demonstrated the use of ElecSus as an atomic vapour thermometry tool, and present a possible new measurement technique of transition decay rates which we predict to have a precision $\sim$ 3 kHz.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

Electromagnetically induced absorption in a non-degenerate three-level ladder system

We investigate, theoretically and experimentally, the transmission of light through a thermal vapour of three-level ladder-type atoms, in the presence of 2 counter-propagating control fields. A simple theoretical model predicts the presence of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in this pure three-level system when the control field is resonant. Experimentally, we use $^{87}$Rb in a large magnetic field of 0.62~T to reach the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime and realise a non-degenerate three-level system. Experimental observations verify the predictions over a wide range of detunings.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

Effect of line broadening on the performance of Faraday filters

We show that homogeneous line broadening drastically affects the performance of atomic Faraday filters. We use a computerized optimization algorithm to find the best magnetic field and temperature for Faraday filters with a range of cell lengths. The effect of self-broadening is found to be particularly important for short vapour cells, and for `wing-type' filters. Experimentally we realize a Faraday filter using a micro-fabricated $^{87}$Rb vapour cell. By modelling the filter spectrum using the ElecSus program we show that additional homogeneous line broadening due to the background buffer-gas pressure must also be included for an accurate fit.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

ElecSus: A program to calculate the electric susceptibility of an atomic ensemble

We present a computer program and underlying model to calculate the electric susceptibility of a gas, which is essential to predict its absorptive and dispersive properties. Our program focusses on alkali-metal vapours where we use a matrix representation of the atomic Hamiltonian in the completely uncoupled basis in order to calculate transition frequencies and strengths. The program calculates various spectra for a weak-probe laser beam in an atomic medium with an applied axial magnetic field. This allows many optical devices to be designed, such as Faraday rotators/filters, optical isolators and circular polarisation filters. Fitting routines are also provided with the program which allows the user to perform optical metrology by fitting to experimental data.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2012

Absolute absorption and dispersion of a rubidium vapour in the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime

Here we report on measurements of the absolute absorption and dispersion properties of an isotopically pure 87Rb vapour for magnetic fields up to and including 0.6 T. We discuss the various regimes that arise when the hyperfine and Zeeman interactions have different magnitudes, and show that we enter the hyperfine Paschen- Back regime for fields greater than 0.33 T on the Rb D2 line. The experiment uses a compact 1 mm3 microfabricated vapour cell that makes it easy to maintain a uniform and large magnetic field with a small and inexpensive magnet. We find excellent agreement between the experimental results and numerical calculations of the weak probe susceptibility where the line positions and strengths are calculated by matrix diagonalization.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2012

Piezoelectrically-actuated time-averaged atomic microtraps

We present a scheme for creating tight and adiabatic time-averaged atom-traps through the piezoelectric actuation of nanomagnetic structures. We show that potentials formed by the circular translation of magnetic structures have several advantages over conventional rotating-field techniques, particularly for high trap frequencies. As the magnitude of the actuation is changed the trapping potential can be changed adiabatically between harmonic 3D confinement and a toroidal trap.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2012

The cooperative Lamb shift in an atomic nanolayer

We present an experimental measurement of the cooperative Lamb shift and the Lorentz shift using an atomic nanolayer with tunable thickness and atomic density. The cooperative Lamb shift arises due to the exchange of virtual photons between identical atoms. The interference between the forward and backward propagating virtual fields is confirmed by the thickness dependence of the shift which has a spatial frequency equal to $2k$, i.e. twice that of the optical field. The demonstration of cooperative interactions in an easily scalable system opens the door to a new domain for non-linear optics.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Manipulating ultracold atoms with a reconfigurable nanomagnetic system of domain walls

The divide between the realms of atomic-scale quantum particles and lithographically-defined nanostructures is rapidly being bridged. Hybrid quantum systems comprising ultracold gas-phase atoms and substrate-bound devices already offer exciting prospects for quantum sensors, quantum information and quantum control. Ideally, such devices should be scalable, versatile and support quantum interactions with long coherence times. Fulfilling these criteria is extremely challenging as it demands a stable and tractable interface between two disparate regimes. Here we demonstrate an architecture for atomic control based on domain walls (DWs) in planar magnetic nanowires that provides a tunable atomic interaction, manifested experimentally as the reflection of ultracold atoms from a nanowire array. We exploit the magnetic reconfigurability of the nanowires to quickly and remotely tune the interaction with high reliability. This proof-of-principle study shows the practicability of more elaborate atom chips based on magnetic nanowires being used to perform atom optics on the nanometre scale.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Optical preparation and measurement of atomic coherence at gigahertz bandwidth

We detail a method for the preparation of atomic coherence in a high density atomic medium, utilising a coherent preparation scheme of gigahertz bandwidth pulses. A numerical simulation of the preparation scheme is developed, and its efficiency in preparing coherent states is found to be close to unity at the entrance to the medium. The coherence is then measured non-invasively with a probe field.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Optical transmission through a dipolar layer

The interaction between light and matter is fundamental to developments in quantum optics and information. Over recent years enormous progress has been made in controlling the interface between light and single emitters including ions, atoms, molecules, quantum dots and ensembles. For many systems, inter-particle interactions are typically negligible. However, if the emitters are separated by less than the emission wavelength, resonant dipole--dipole interactions modify the radiative decay rate and induce a splitting or shift of the resonance. Here we map out the transition between individual dipoles and a strongly interacting ensemble by increasing the density of atoms confined in a layer with thickness much less than the emission wavelength. We find two surprising results: whereas for a non-interacting ensemble the opacity increases linearly with atomic density, for an interacting ensemble the opacity saturates, i.e., a thin dipolar layer never becomes opaque regardless of how many scatterers are added. Secondly, the relative phase of the dipoles produces an abrupt change in the optical transmission around the thickness λ/4.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Nanomagnetic engineering of the properties of domain wall atom traps

We have used the results of micromagnetic simulations to investigate the effects of nanowire geometry and domain wall magnetization structure on the characteristic parameters of magnetic atom traps formed by domain walls in planar ferromagnetic nanowires. It is found that when traps are formed in the near-field of a domain wall both nanowire geometry and wall structure have a substantial effect on trap frequency and adiabaticity. We also show that in certain regimes a trap's depth depends only on the amplitude of an externally applied rotating magnetic field, thus allowing it to be tuned independently of the trap's other critical parameters.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Optical control of Faraday rotation in hot Rb vapor

We demonstrate controlled polarization rotation of an optical field conditional on the presence of a second field. Induced rotations of greater than pi/2 rad are seen with a transmission of 95%, corresponding to a ratio of phase shift to absorption of 40 pi. This combination of large, controlled rotation and low loss is well-suited for the manipulation of both classical and quantum light pulses.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Faraday filtering of Raman light in an isotopically pure alkali metal vapor

We present an application of the Faraday effect to produce a narrow band atomic filter in an alkali metal vapor. In our experiment two Raman beams separated in frequency by the ground state hyperfine splitting in 87Rb are produced using an EOM and then filtered using the Faraday effect in an isotopically pure 85Rb thermal vapor. An experimental transmission spectra for the filter is presented along with a theoretical calculation. The performance of the filter is then demonstrated and characterized using a Fabry-Perot etalon. For a temperature of 70 degrees and a longitudinal magnetic field of 80 G a suppression to -18 dB is achieved, limited by the quality of the polarizers.

physics.atom-ph↗