Dynamics of coherent optical pumping in a sodium atomic beam

This work is concerned with the temporal evolution of the coherent population trapping (CPT) process in the case of additional optical pumping to states not contributing to the CPT superposition states. Special attention is paid to the influence of weak external magnetic fields that can change the laser-atom interaction considerably. The theoretical analysis is completed by experimental observations on a sodium atomic beam, which show good agreement with our theory. The results obtained are of importance for a realistic picture of CPT schemes in practical applications.