Based on the cesium 6S 1/2 -6P 3/2 -8S 1/2 ladder-type atomic system, double-resonance optical pumping (DROP) spectra including electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effects have been investigated with a roomtemperature cesium vapor cell. For both cases of the probe and the coupling laser beams passing through the cesium vapor cell with the counter-propagation (CTP) and co-propagation (CP) configurations, the DROP spectra measured in the experiment display explicitly different linewidths. Thanks to the EIT effect, the linewidth of the DROP spectrum is explicitly narrower for the CTP configuration than for the CP configuration. Experimental results agree with the theoretical analysis considering Doppler averaging. Furthermore, when the coupling laser has moderate power, the DROP spectrum for the CTP configuration clearly shows two components: the narrow part due to the EIT effect and the broad part caused by optical pumping (but these two different components are never seen in the CP configuration). Also, the effect of the intensity of the coupling and probe lasers on the DROP spectra is investigated.

A two-color magneto-optical trap (MOT) for trapping cesium (Cs) atoms is experimentally realized. This two-color MOT employs the radiation forces due to photon scattering from the Cs 6P(3/2) F' = 5 - 8S(1/2) F" = 4 excited-state transition, which replaced one pair of the three pairs of cooling/trapping laser beams operating on a single-photon red detuning to the Cs 6S(1/2) F = 4 - 6P(3/2) F' = 5 cycling transition in a standard six-beam Cs MOT, and can cool and trap atoms on both the red-detuning and blue-detuning sides of the two-photon resonance. Employing the two-color MOT, the background-free fluorescence detection of trapped atoms has been demonstrated. This technique will be useful for observation of weak fluorescence signal radiated from single atoms in MOT.

In a Doppler-broadened ladder-type cesium atomic system (6S 1/2 -6P 3/2 -8S 1/2 ), this paper characterizes electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in two different experimental arrangements, and investigates the influence of the double-resonance optical-pumping (DROP) effect on EIT in both arrangements. When the probe laser is weak, DROP is explicitly suppressed. When the probe laser is moderate, population of the intermediate level (6P 3/2 F = 5) is remarkable, therefore DROP is mixed with EIT. An interesting bimodal spectrum with the broad component due to DROP and the narrow part due to EIT has been clearly observed in cesium 6S 1/2 F = 4-6P 3/2 F = 5-8S 1/2 F = 4 transitions.

By monitoring the transmission of probe laser beam (also served as coupling laser beam) which is locked to a cycling hyperfine transition of cesium D(2) line, while pumping laser is scanned across cesium D(1) or D(2) lines, the single-resonance optical pumping (SROP) spectra are obtained with atomic vapor cell. The SROP spectra indicate the variation of the zero-velocity atoms population of one hyperfine fold of ground state, which is optically pumped into another hyperfine fold of ground state by pumping laser. With the virtue of Doppler-free linewidth, high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), flat background and elimination of crossover resonance lines (CRLs), the SROP spectra with atomic vapor cell around room temperature can be employed to measure dressed-state splitting of ground state, which is normally detected with laser-cooled atomic sample only, even if the dressed-state splitting is much smaller than the Doppler-broaden linewidth at room temperature.

Autler-Townes splitting in absorption spectra of the excited states 6 2 P 3/2 − 8 2 S 1/2 of cold cesium atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap has been observed. Experimental data of the Autler-Townes splitting fit well to the dressedatom theory, by which the fact of the cold atoms dressed by cooling/trapping laser beams is revealed. The results of the theoretical fitting with experiment not only told us the effective Rabi frequency cold atoms experienced, but also could be used for measuring the probability amplitudes of the dressed states.