Optically Polarized Atoms

This book is addressed to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students involved in research in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. It will also be useful to researchers practising in this field. It gives an intuitive, yet sufficiently detailed and rigorous introduction to light-atom interactions with a particular emphasis on the symmetry aspects of the interaction, especially those associated with the angular momentum of atoms and light. The book will enable readers to carry out practical calculations on their own, and is richly illustrated with examples drawn from current research topics, such as resonant nonlinear magneto-opticals. The book comes with a software package for a variety of atomic-physics calculations and further interactive examples that is freely downloadable from the book's web page, as well as additional materials (such as power-point presentations) available to instructors who adopt the text for their courses. "This is an excellent undergraduate textbook which provides a modern treatment of atom-light interactions from an experimentalist's perspective. I recommend this book to any student who aims for a deep understanding of the concepts in atomic physics and how to apply them to current research topics." --Dieter Jaksch, University of Oxford"Many modern atomic physics experiments use subtle effects of atom-light interactions, be they the destructive interference associated with coherent superpositons, or the dynamics of optical pumping, or alignment to orientation conversion. Having such topics discussed in a coherent theoretical framework provides an excellent resource." --Ifan Hughes, Durham University"I highly recommend Optically Polarized Atoms and will probably use it next time I teach my graduate course. ... The book is specifically intended for use in a one-semester course in which the symmetry and angular-momentum aspects of atomic structure and laser-atom interactions are central. ... The level of detail and the clarity of explanations are admirable." --Daniel F. V. James, Physics Today"The recently published book Optically Polarized Atoms by Marcis Auzinsh, Dmitry Budker and Simon M. Rochester will be a unique and valuable addition to the library of anyone - students or established researchers... It provides a rich mine of information about atomic physics that is hard to find elsewhere. I intend to keep a copy on my shelf of favorite physics books." --William Happer, Princeton UniversityI: INTRODUCTION TO LIGHT-ATOM INTERACTIONS ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Atomic states ; 3. A bit of angular-momentum theory ; 4. Atoms in external electric and magnetic fields ; 5. Polarized atoms ; 6. Polarized light ; 7. Atomic transitions ; 8. Coherence in atomic systems ; 9. Optical pumping ; 10. Light-atom interaction observed in transmitted light ; II: ADVANCED TOPICS ; 11. Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation ; 12. Perturbative and approximate methods for light-atom interactions ; 13. Polarization effects in transitions with partially resolved hyperfine structure ; 14. The effect of hyperfine splitting on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation ; 15. Coherence effects revisited ; 16. Collapse and revival in quantum beats ; 17. Nuclear quadrupole resonance and alignment-to-orientation conversion ; 18. Selective addressing of high-rank polarization moments ; 19. Tensor structure of the DC- and AC-Stark polarizabilities ; 20. Photoionization of polarized atoms with polarized light ; Appendix A: Constants, units, and notations ; Appendix B: Units of energy, frequency, and wavelength ; Appendix C: Reference data for hydrogen and the alkali atoms ; Appendix D: Classical rotations ; Appendix E: Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation with hyperfine structure ; Appendix F: The Atomic Density Matrix software package