Coherence effects in electromagnetically induced transparency in V-type systems of 87Rb

We present a theoretical and experimental study of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in V-type systems of 87Rb atoms. We calculate accurate lineshapes of V-type EIT spectra by solving density matrix equations considering all the magnetic sublevels involved. The calculated spectra demonstrate consistency with the experimental results. We identify the coherence effect in the calculated EIT spectra, and determine that the coherence effect exists only in the cycling transition. We explain the reason for the suppression of the coherence effect in open transitions using an analytical calculation of the spectra for a simple V-type three-level atomic system. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America