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Condensed-matter physics

Rabi flopping sees the light

Nature volume 420, pages 469–471 (2002)Cite this article

Ultrashort laser pulses are a valuable tool, but at these timescales a factor called the 'carrier–envelope phase' becomes important. A new technique to measure the evolution of this phase could advance laser spectroscopy.

In 1936, Isidor Rabi published a ground-breaking study2 of a two-level, quantum-mechanical system. These levels might be two energy levels of an atom, the two possible orientations of a spin in a magnetic field, or the valence and conduction bands of a semiconductor. Rabi looked at how the occupation of the levels was affected when the system was stimulated by an electromagnetic wave of the same frequency as the natural transition frequency between the levels (Ω0). He found that, when the electromagnetic wave was turned on, starting from the lowest-energy (ground) state the system became progressively more excited, with increasing occupation of the higher level. But once the system had become fully excited, the same electromagnetic wave stimulated the emission of radiation and the system returned to the ground state — the process then started all over again. This is Rabi flopping3, and it has its own frequency, ΩR, which depends on the intensity of the electromagnetic wave.

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Figure 1: Phase slip.

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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    Thomas Udem

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  1. Thomas Udem
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Correspondence to Thomas Udem.

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Udem, T. Rabi flopping sees the light. Nature 420, 469–471 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/420469a

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