Effects of radiative decay in four-wave-mixing spectroscopy: Narrow resonances produced by nonconservation of population, alignment, and orientation

Stabilization of spin states of an open system: bichromatic driving of resonance transitions in NV ensembles in diamond

We apply a laser and two nearly degenerate microwave fields upon an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and observe magnetic resonance structures with two-component, composite shapes of nested Lorentzians with different widths. One component of them undergoes regular power-broadening, whereas the linewidth of the other one becomes power-independent and undergoes field-induced stabilization. We show that the observed width stabilization is a general phenomenon that results from competition between coherent driving and non-conservation of populations that occur in open systems. The phenomenon is interpreted in terms of specific combinations of state populations that play the role of bright and dark states.

Storage of orbital angular momenta of light via coherent population oscillation

We report on the storage of orbital angular momenta (OAM) of light via the phenomenon of coherent population oscillation (CPO) in cold cesium atoms. The experiment is performed using a delayed four wave mixing configuration, where the transverse optical information of a probe field carrying OAM associated with its azimuthal phase dependence is stored in the CPO of Zeeman sublevels of the hyperfine transition F=3→F'=2 of the cesium D2 line. We also demonstrate experimentally the simultaneous storage and retrieval of different OAM states propagating along different directions in space, leading to algebraic operations with OAM and, therefore, opening the possibility of multiplexing OAM states.

Ultranarrow extraresonant antiholes in pump-probe spectroscopy induced by inelastic collisions

Pump-probe spectroscopy with copropagating pump and probe beams of an open two-level system where, as a result of inelastic collisions, the lower state of an optical transition relaxes faster to reservoir states than the upper state does, may yield an antihole in the probe spectral profile whose linewidth is subnatural and unaffected by Doppler broadening.