Coherent spectroscopy of degenerate two-level systems in Cesium

Coherent spectroscopy of degenerate two-level systems of the Doppler-broadened D2 cesium line has been performed in vacuum and in buffer gas cells. Subnatural-width ~SNW! electromagnetically induced transparency and electromagnetically induced absorption ~EIA! resonances have been observed with single-frequency laser excitation for different light polarizations and collision regimes. SNW-EIA resonances with linearly polarized excitation of the Fg54 level are observed, and they increase their contrast with power density increase and reach a contrast of 20% at 200 mWcm22. A theoretical model has been elaborated, taking into account the Doppler broadening of the transitions, the linewidth of the laser light, and the experimental conditions for observation of the fluorescence. Here the theoretical results are in agreement with those of the experiment. In a buffer gas cell, the SNW resonances in the fluorescence, in degenerate two-level systems are observed for the first time and they are only obtained with circularly polarized light. A theoretical explanation of this result is proposed. At the expense of contrast, in the presence of a buffer gas the coherent resonances are significantly narrower than in a vacuum cell for the same power density. The observation of SNW resonances in buffer gas is significantly less sensitive to the laser frequency drift than in a vacuum cell, which could be advantageous for applications in metrology and in the measurement of weak magnetic fields.