We present an experimental measurement of the cooperative Lamb shift and the Lorentz shift using a nanothickness atomic vapor layer with tunable thickness and atomic density. The cooperative Lamb shift arises due to the exchange of virtual photons between identical atoms. The interference between the forward and backward propagating virtual fields is confirmed by the thickness dependence of the shift, which has a spatial frequency equal to twice that of the optical field. The demonstration of cooperative interactions in an easily scalable system opens the door to a new domain for nonlinear optics.

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PACS. 42.50.Gy -Effects of atomic coherence on propagation, absorption, and amplification of light; electromagnetically induced transparency and absorption. PACS. 32.70.Jz -Line shapes, widths, and shifts. PACS. 42.50.Md -Optical transient phenomena: quantum beats, photon echo, free-induction decay, dephasings and revivals, optical nutation, and self-induced transparency.Abstract.-In a thin cell of dilute vapour, the absorption spectrum exhibits sub-Doppler features due to the relative enhancement of the slow atom contribution, with respect to the transient nature of the interaction with moving atoms. For a two-level system in the linear regime, the narrowest response is predicted to be found for a λ/2 thickness, as an effect of the coherent character of the dipole response as early described by Romer and Dicke (Phys. Rev., 99 (1955) 532) in the microwave regime. We report here on the direct observation of this effect in the optical regime in an ultra-thin vapour cell. This effect is shown to vanish for a thickness equal to λ, and a revival is observed at 3λ/2, as expected from the predicted λ-periodicity. The experiment is performed on the D1 resonance line of Cs vapour (λ = 894 nm), in a specially designed cell, whose thickness varies locally.

We compare the behavior of absorption and of resonance fluorescence spectra in an extremely thin Rb vapor cell as a function of the ratio of L / , with L the cell thickness ͑L ϳ 150-1800 nm͒ and the wavelength of the Rb D 2 line ͑ = 780 mn͒. The Dicke-type coherent narrowing [G. Dutier et al., Europhys. Lett. 63, 35 (2003)] is observed only in transmission measurements, in the linear regime, with its typical collapse and revival, which reaches a maximum for L = ͑2n +1͒ /2 (n integer). It is shown not to appear in fluorescence, whose behavior-amplitude, and spectral width, is more monotonic with L. Conversely, at high-intensity, the sub-Doppler saturation effects are shown to be the most visible in transmission around L = n.

We describe the so-called "λ-Zeeman method" to investigate individual hyperfine transitions between Zeeman sublevels of atoms in an external magnetic field of 0.1 mT ÷ 0.25 T. Atoms are confined in a nanocell with thickness L = λ, where λ is the resonant wavelength (794 nm or 780 nm for D1 or D2 line of Rb). Narrow resonances in the transmission spectrum of the nanocell are split into several components in a magnetic field; their frequency positions and probabilities depend on the B -field. Possible applications are described, such as magnetometers with nanometric spatial resolution and tunable atomic frequency references.