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Interaction of a Poincaré beam with optically polarized atoms in the presence of a constant magnetic field

S. Ramakrishna* and S. Fritzsche

  • *Contact author: shreyas.ramakrishna@uni-jena.de
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Phys. Rev. A 111, 063110 – Published 20 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5r63-5hl1

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the frequent applications of structured light modes in optically pumped atomic magnetometers. In this work, we theoretically explore how a Poincaré beam probes an optically polarized atomic medium. Specifically, we consider atoms polarized by a plane wave with linear polarization, immersed in a constant external magnetic field. We analyze how the polarization of the pump and probe light fields, along with the external magnetic field, impact the absorption profile. To this end, we employ a density-matrix approach based on the Liouville–von Neumann equation. Our results reveal that the absorption profile exhibits an asymmetric pattern that depends on the magnetic-field strength and the mutual orientation of the pump and probe light propagation directions relative to the quantization axis. For illustration, we assume the incoming radiation drives an electric dipole transition, 5s2S1/2 (F=1) →5p2P3/2 (F=0), in rubidium atoms subjected to a magnetic field. These findings may aid in designing future experiments on optically pumped atomic magnetometers utilizing structured light modes.

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Phys. Rev. A 111, 063110– Published 20 June, 2025
  • Received 25 March 2025
  • Accepted 11 June 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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