| Zusammenfassung |
Optics of structured light is an emerging research field which refers to the generation and application of electromagnetic waves and photons with custom spatial, temporal, and internal properties. The capability to shape multiple degrees of freedom of light such as amplitude, phase, frequency, and polarization makes it very attractive for controlling the quantum states of atoms, which has led to growing interest in its use across atomic physics, optics, and metrology. This thesis presents a theoretical investigation of the interaction of structured light with atoms in magnetic fields, with an emphasis on magnetometry and diagnostics of light fields. In conventional spectroscopic experiments with trapped atoms, the incident radiation is typically assumed to be in a well-defined state and is used mainly to extract information about internal atomic states. The present thesis explores the inverse approach, in which the population of magnetic sublevels of trapped atoms is used as a probe for the composition of the incident radiation. To describe the time evolution of atomic systems in the presence of light fields, a general theoretical framework was developed based on the density-matrix apparatus. Our analysis demonstrates that the magnetic-sublevel population distribution allows us to probe tiny admixtures in structured light fields and determine the direction of an isolated optical magnetic field. Such findings indicate that a well-localized atom can serve as an effective diagnostic tool for structured light. To explore the prospects of using structured light in atomic magnetometry, the transmission of structured radiation through an atomic medium immersed in external fields is studied. While previous works focused primarily on static homogeneous magnetic fields, the present thesis examines time-dependent homogeneous and static inhomogeneous magnetic fields, as well as configurations combining static magnetic fields with pump light. Such scenarios are of particular relevance for forthcoming experimental studies, such as those pursued within the V-MAG consortium of the QuantERA II Programme. |
