Electric Field Induced Symmetry Breaking of Angular Momentum Distribution in Atoms
Atomic Physics
2009-11-11 v1
Abstract
We report the experimental observation of alignment to orientation conversion in the 7D_3/2 and 9D_3/2 states of Cs in the presence of an external dc electric field, and without the influence of magnetic fields or atomic collisions. Initial alignment of angular momentum states was created by two-step excitation with linearly polarized laser radiation. The appearance of transverse orientation of angular momentum was confirmed by the observation of circularly polarized light. We present experimentally measured signals and compare them with the results of a detailed theoretical model based on the optical Bloch equations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0603194,
title = {Electric Field Induced Symmetry Breaking of Angular Momentum Distribution in Atoms},
author = {Marcis Auzinsh and Kaspars Blushs and Ruvin Ferber and Florian Gahbauer and Andrey Jarmola and Maris Tamanis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0603194},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages with 4 figures (6 postscript files), submitted to Physical Review Letters