Experimental study of laser detected magnetic resonance based on atomic alignment

We present an experimental study of the spectra produced by optical/radio-frequency double resonance in which resonant linearly polarized laser light is used in the optical pumping and detection processes. We show that the experimental spectra obtained for cesium are in excellent agreement with a very general theoretical model developed in our group and we investigate the limitations of this model. Finally, the results are discussed in view of their use in the study of relaxation processes in aligned alkali vapors.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. A. Related to physics/060523

An Interesting Class of Operators with unusual Schatten-von Neumann behavior

We consider the class of integral operators Q_\f on $L^2(\R_+)$ of the form (Q_\f f)(x)=\int_0^\be\f (\max\{x,y\})f(y)dy. We discuss necessary and sufficient conditions on $\phi$ to insure that $Q_{\phi}$ is bounded, compact, or in the Schatten-von Neumann class \bS_p, $1<p<\infty$. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for $Q_{\phi}$ to be a finite rank operator. However, there is a kind of cut-off at $p=1$, and for membership in \bS_{p}, $0<p\leq1$, the situation is more complicated. Although we give various necessary conditions and sufficient conditions relating to Q_{\phi}\in\bS_{p} in that range, we do not have necessary and sufficient conditions. In the most important case $p=1$, we have a necessary condition and a sufficient condition, using $L^1$ and $L^2$ modulus of continuity, respectively, with a rather small gap in between. A second cut-off occurs at $p=1/2$: if \f is sufficiently smooth and decays reasonably fast, then \qf belongs to the weak Schatten-von Neumann class \wS{1/2}, but never to \bS_{1/2} unless \f=0. We also obtain results for related families of operators acting on $L^2(\R)$ and $\ell^2(\Z)$. We further study operations acting on bounded linear operators on $L^{2}(\R^{+})$ related to the class of operators Q_\f. In particular we study Schur multipliers given by functions of the form $\phi(\max\{x,y\})$ and we study properties of the averaging projection (Hilbert-Schmidt projection) onto the operators of the form Q_\f.Comment: 87 page

Large spin relaxation rates in trapped submerged-shell atoms

Spin relaxation due to atom-atom collisions is measured for magnetically trapped erbium and thulium atoms at a temperature near 500 mK. The rate constants for Er-Er and Tm-Tm collisions are 3.0 times 10^-10 cm^3 s^-1 and 1.1 times 10^-10 cm^3 s^-1, respectively, 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than those observed for highly magnetic S-state atoms. This is strong evidence for an additional, dominant, spin relaxation mechanism, electrostatic anisotropy, in collisions between these "submerged-shell" L > 0 atoms. These large spin relaxation rates imply that evaporative cooling of these atoms in a magnetic trap will be highly inefficient.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Detecting photon-photon scattering in vacuum at exawatt lasers

In a recent paper, we have shown that the QED nonlinear corrections imply a phase correction to the linear evolution of crossing electromagnetic waves in vacuum. Here, we provide a more complete analysis, including a full numerical solution of the QED nonlinear wave equations for short-distance propagation in a symmetric configuration. The excellent agreement of such a solution with the result that we obtain using our perturbatively-motivated Variational Approach is then used to justify an analytical approximation that can be applied in a more general case. This allows us to find the most promising configuration for the search of photon-photon scattering in optics experiments. In particular, we show that our previous requirement of phase coherence between the two crossing beams can be released. We then propose a very simple experiment that can be performed at future exawatt laser facilities, such as ELI, by bombarding a low power laser beam with the exawatt bump.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Noise spectroscopy of optical microcavity

The intensity noise spectrum of the light passed through an optical microcavity is calculated with allowance for thermal fluctuations of its thickness. The spectrum thus obtained reveals a peak at the frequency of acoustic mode localized inside the microcavity and depends on the size of the illuminated area. The estimates of the noise magnitude show that it can be detected using the up-to-date noise spectroscopy technique.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Optical measurements of spin noise as a high resolution spectroscopic tool

The intrinsic fluctuations of electron spins in semiconductors and atomic vapors generate a small, randomly-varying "spin noise" that can be detected by sensitive optical methods such as Faraday rotation. Recent studies have demonstrated that the frequency, linewidth, and lineshape of this spin noise directly reveals dynamical spin properties such as dephasing times, relaxation mechanisms and g-factors without perturbing the spins away from equilibrium. Here we demonstrate that spin noise measurements using wavelength-tunable probe light forms the basis of a powerful and novel spectroscopic tool to provide unique information that is fundamentally inaccessible via conventional linear optics. In particular, the wavelength dependence of the detected spin noise power can reveal homogeneous linewidths buried within inhomogeneously-broadened optical spectra, and can resolve overlapping optical transitions belonging to different spin systems. These new possibilities are explored both theoretically and via experiments on spin systems in opposite limits of inhomogeneous broadening (alkali atom vapors and semiconductor quantum dots).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure