PHASE-DEPENDENT VELOCITY-SELECTIVE COHERENT POPULATION TRAPPING IN A FOLDED 3-LEVEL (BOOLEAN-AND) SYSTEM UNDER STANDING-WAVE EXCITATION

Theoretically identified are the conditions under which velocity selec tive coherent population trapping (VSCPT) takes place when a three-lev el AND system is excited by a pair of Raman resonant standing waves. T he efficiency of the VSCPT depends on the relative phase, phi, between the standing waves, and vanishes when phi = 0. Also reviewed are prev ious experimental observations by Aspect et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 61 ( 1988) 826] which qualitatively validate the predictions. Finally, the implication of this result to the feasibility of a dense tmp of sub-re coil temperature AND atoms is discussed.