Three-laser coherent population trapping in a multi-Λ system: Theory, experiment, and applications

We present theoretical and experimental results of coherent population trapping spectra on a multilevel Λ -type configuration, adding a third beam to the standard two-laser Λ system to avoid undesired optical pumping. We show that the extra laser can preserve the nature of the dark resonances or introduce decoherence depending on its power. Experiments are carried out using a single trapped ⁺⁴⁰Ca ion in the S_{1 /2}-P_{1 /2}-D_{3 /2} manifold. Theoretically, the problem is solved with a Floquet-type expansion of the Liouvillian that correctly predicts all of the measured spectra without the need of full time integration. As a first application of the multilaser technique, we show that the richer spectra obtained can be used as a vectorial polarimeter of one of the beams, allowing one to measure the electrical field at the ion's position in any spatial direction. We also explain how our setup could realize a thermometer with tunable sensitivity and no laser-linewidth dependence.