Atom spin squeezing in a double lambda system

Abstract

The interaction of classical and quantized electromagnetic fields with an ensemble of atoms in an optical cavity is considered. Four fields drive a double-lambda level scheme in the atoms, consisting of a pair of lambda systems sharing the same set of lower levels. Two of the fields produce maximum coherence, rho12 = -1/2, between the ground state sublevels 1 and 2. This pumping scheme involves equal intensity fields that are resonant with both the one and two-photon transitions of the lambda system. There is no steady-state absorption of these fields, implying that the fields induce a type electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) in the medium. An additional pair of fields interacting with the second lambda system, combined with the EIT fields, leads to squeezing of the atom spin associated with the ground state sublevels. Our method involves a new mechanism for creating steady-state spin squeezing using an optical cavity. As the cooperativity parameter C is increased, the optimal squeezing varies as C^{-1/3}. For experimentally accessible values of C, squeezing as large as 90% can be achieved.