View article

We have investigated atomic coherence changes caused by optical pumping applied to electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) occurring at the open system, which consists of the transition between the F g= 2 ground state and the F e= 3 excited state in the 85 Rb D1-line. For optical pumping, another laser resonantly tuned to the transition between the F g= 3 ground state and the F e= 2 excited state was used. We found that the atomic coherence for EIA can be changed not by increasing the pumping rate but by pumping differently populations into the Zeeman sublevels in the F g= 2 ground state, which is realized by changing the polarization of the pumping laser. The experimental results were able to be analysed by density matrix equations in the simple model system.