The resonance fluorescence of a four-level atom in J = 1/2 to J = 1/2 transition driven by two coherent fields is studied. We find that the incoherent fluorescence spectrum shows a direct indication of vacuum-induced coherence in the atomic system. We show that such coherence manifests itself via an enhancement or suppression of the spectral peaks in the π-polarized fluorescence. The effect of the relative phase of the driving fields on the spectral features is also investigated. We show that phase-dependent enhancement or suppression of the fluorescence peaks appears in the incoherent spectrum emitted along the σ transitions. It is found that this phase dependence occurs because of the polarization-detection scheme employed for the observation of the fluorescence light. We present an analytical explanation, based on dressed-states of the atom-field system, to interpret the numerical results. 1 2 4 3 γ 1 γ σ γ σ m j = -1 / 2 m j = +1 / 2 γ 2 Δ Ω  Ω  Ω b y Atom ( E b , ϕ b ) (E  , ϕ  ) Laser Laser Detector Polarizer z x FIG. 1: (a) The level scheme of a four-level atom with J = 1/2 to J = 1/2 transitions driven by coherent fields. The transitions |1 ↔ |3 and |2 ↔ |4 are driven by a linearly polarized field while a σ − -polarized field induces the transitions |1 ↔ |4 in the atom. (b) The arrangement for laser fields driving the atom and the detection of the fluorescence spectrum.

The squeezing spectrum of the fluorescence field emitted from a four-level atom in J = 1/2 to J = 1/2 configuration driven by two coherent fields is studied. We find that the squeezing properties of the fluorescence radiation are significantly influenced by the presence of vacuum-induced coherence in the atomic system. It is shown that such coherence induces spectral squeezing in phase quadratures of the fluorescence light for both weak and strong driving fields. The dependence of the squeezing spectrum on the relative phase of the driving fields is also investigated. Effects such as enhancement or suppression of the squeezing peaks are shown in the spectrum as the relative phase is varied. An analytical explanation of the numerical findings is presented using dressed-states of the atom-field system.

We present a scheme that enables the observation of interference effects in the resonance fluorescence of a V-type atom with orthogonal dipole moments. Specifically, we consider the atomic configuration of a J g = 0 to J e = 1 transition driven by a single laser field. By employing polarization-sensitive detection in such a way that the light emitted on the two transitions become indistinguishable, we show that one can simulate the effect of vacuum-induced coherence on the resonance fluorescence of this system. In addition, we demonstrate the possibility of realizing atomic transitions with both parallel and antiparallel dipole moments and their effects on the fluorescence spectrum. The interference induced leads to interesting features in the fluorescence spectrum such as asymmetric spectral peaks, enhancement and suppression of the sidebands, and disappearance of fluorescence in the particular direction of detection. The numerical results are understood in the context of the dressed states of the combined atom–field system.