Related papers: The Atomic Lighthouse Effect
We theoretically study the propagation of light through a cold atomic medium, where the effects of motion, laser intensity, atomic density, and polarization can all modify the properties of the scattered light. We present two different…
We report the observation of the optomechanical strain applied to thermal and to quantum degenerate $^{87}\text{Rb}$ atomic clouds when illuminated by an intense, far detuned homogenous laser beam. In this regime the atomic cloud acts as a…
We measure the coherent scattering of light by a cloud of laser-cooled atoms with a size comparable to the wavelength of light. By interfering a laser beam tuned near an atomic resonance with the field scattered by the atoms we observe a…
The position response of a particle subjected to a perturbation is of general interest in physics. We study the modification of the position response function of an ensemble of cold atoms in a magneto-optical trap in the presence of tunable…
We propose to control light trapping in a large ensemble of cold atoms by an external, static magnetic field. For an appropriate choice of frequency and polarization of the exciting pulse, the field is expected to speed up the fluorescence…
The Zeeman effect, a fundamental quantum phenomenon, demonstrates the interaction between magnetic fields and atomic systems. While precise spectroscopic measurements of this effect have advanced significantly, there remains a lack of…
Starting from a microscopic theory for atomic scatterers, we describe the scattering of light by a single atom and study the coherent propagation of light in a cold atomic cloud in the presence of a magnetic field B in the mesoscopic…
We study the effect of an external magnetic field on coherent backscattering of light from a cool rubidium vapor. We observe that the backscattering enhancement factor can be {\it increased} with $B$. This surprising behavior shows that the…
On the basis of exact numerical simulations and analytical calculations, we describe qualitatively and quantitatively the interference processes at the origin of the photonic Hall effect for resonant Rayleigh (point-dipole) scatterers in a…
Cooperative scattering of light by an extended object such as an atomic ensemble or a dielectric sphere is fundamentally different from scattering from many point-like scatterers such as single atoms. Homogeneous distributions tend to…
We have demonstrated an atom-optical lens, with the advantage of a small scale and flexible adjustment of the parameters, realized by a far red-detuned Gaussian laser beam perpendicular to the propagation direction of the cold atomic cloud.…
We present a semi-classical theory for light deflection by a coherent $\Lambda$-type three-level atomic medium in an inhomogeneous magnetic field or an inhomogeneous control laser. When the atomic energy levels (or the Rabi coupling by the…
We analyze theoretically and experimentally the existence of a {\it magic frequency} for which the absorption of a linearly polarized light beam by vapor alkali atoms is independent of the population distribution among the Zeeman sub-levels…
Since the work of Anderson on localization, interference effects for the propagation of a wave in the presence of disorder have been extensively studied, as exemplified in coherent backscattering (CBS) of light. In the multiple scattering…
We analyse a decoherence effect, caused by the gravitational interaction between a massive body and the electromagnetic field. Assuming a quantum version of the light bending interaction, we show that it leads to decoherence of the mass if…
We investigate the evolution of a Zeeman coherence grating induced in a cold atomic cesium sample in the presence of an external magnetic field. The gratings are created in a three-beam light storage configuration using two quasi-collinear…
A cloud of cold N two-level atoms driven by a resonant laser beam shows cooperative effects both in the scattered radiation field and in the radiation pressure force acting on the cloud center-of-mass. The induced dipoles synchronize and…
The irradiation of a dilute cloud of cold atoms with a coherent light field produces a random intensity distribution known as laser speckle. Its statistical fluctuations contain information about the mesoscopic scattering processes at work…
We study the temporal dynamics of light interacting with a one-dimensional lattice of cold atoms. In such a system, a photonic band gap opens up, yielding an efficient Bragg reflection for an incident field incoming with the right angle and…
Cold atomic clouds constitute highly resonant nonlinear optical media, whose refractive index can be easily tuned via the light frequency. When subjected to a retro-reflected laser beam and under appropriate conditions, the cloud undergoes…