Paper detail

Quantitative study of desctructive quantum interference effect on the linklin CPT

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the Coherent Population Trapping (CPT) effect occurring in 87Rb D1 line due to the interaction with linearly polarized laser light (lin||lin CPT). In this configuration the coherence has a quadrupol like nature and is strongly influenced by the hyperfine structure of the excited state; consequently the quantum interference between CPT states is an essential feature of this interaction scheme. We study the lin||lin CPT signal as a function of the laser optical detuning. The comparison between experimental and theoretical results allows us to quantify the contribution from different CPT states to the total signal. Based on these results we investigate the signal depending on both the pressure broadening of the optical transition and the laser linewidth, and we find in which conditions the laser linewidth does not degrade the amplitude of the lin||lin CPT.