High-contrast dark resonances with linearly polarized light on the D1 line of alkali atoms with large nuclear spin.

High-contrast coherent population trapping signals were observed on the Cs D1 line by use of a bichromatic linear polarized light (lin‖lin field). A maximum absorption contrast of about 10% was obtained. This was nearly twice as high as that measured with the standard configuration of bichromatic circularly polarized light (σ-σ field). The results are compared with density matrix calculations of 4 and 5 level systems.