Laser field induced birefringence and enhancement of magneto-optical rotation

An initially isotropic medium, when subjected to either a magnetic field or a coherent field, can induce anisotropy in the medium and can cause the po larization of a probe field to rotate. Therefore the rotation of the probe polarization, due to the magnetic field alone, can be controlled efficientl y with the use of a coherent control field. We demonstrate this enhancement of the magneto-optical rotation (MOR) of linearly polarized light, by doin g detailed calculations on a system with the relevant transitions j = 0 <-- -->,j = 1 <---->,j = 0. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.