Simultaneous electromagnetically induced transparency and absorption in thermal atomic medium

The propagation of a probe field through a four-level Y-type atomic system is described in the presence of two additional coherent radiation fields, namely, the control field and the coupling field. An expression for the probe response is derived analytically from the optical Bloch equations under steady state condition to study the absorptive properties of the system under probe field propagation through an ensemble of stationary atoms as well as in a Doppler broadened atomic vapor medium. The most striking result is the conversion of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) into electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) as we start switching from weak probe regime to strong probe regime. The dependence of this conversion on residual Doppler averaging due to wavelength mismatch is also shown by choosing the coupling transition as a Rydberg transition.

We propose a multifunction phase-shifting manipulator with low noise at a single-photon level,by using a threelevel atomic scheme.This three-level system interacts with a strong pumping field and a weak probe field with a large detuning.Due to this large detuning,two lower states can be coherently prepared prior to the injection of the pump and probe fields.In our configuration,the duration of the pumping field is much longer than that of the probe field. By solving the Heisenberg-Langevin equations of our system under the steady state approximation,we calculate the linear susceptibility of the system and examine the quantum noise properties of the probe field in detail.We show that this scheme,which rests on the process of two-wave mixing with initial atomic coherence,exhibits many interesting properties that neither typical electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) schemes nor active Raman gain (ARG) schemes possess.Although both EIT-and ARG-based schemes have been widely investigated in atomic medium,the direct generalizations of these schemes to the single/few photon limit prove to be more problematic.The low fidelity due to the significant probe-field attenuation in EIT medium and the large quantum noise due to the amplification of the probe field in an active Raman gain medium are the main obstacles that prohibit a high-fidelity,low-noise phase shifter from being realized in the single/few photon limit.Physically,this scheme can be viewed as a hybrid scheme in which two processes of different physical principles are allowed to interfere with each other to achieve many desired functionalities. For instance,it can be used as a lossless two-photon-broadband phase-shifter with suitable system parameters.It can also be used as an attenuator/amplifier and a total transparency with a zero phase shift.In particular,we show that by locking the pump field intensity and the two-photon detuning simultaneously a flat constant π-phase shift can be realized with unit probe fidelity in a broad probe field frequency range.Applying the quantum regression theorem,we calculate the noise spectrum of the outgoing probe field as a large phase shift is achieved,and show that this two-photon-insensitive π-phase shift may significantly reduce the quantum noise fluctuations associated with a Raman gain process,and have a lot of potential applications for quantum information processing and optical telecommunication.The realization of this broadband π-phase-shift with significantly reduced quantum noise fluctuations makes this scheme attractive for the realization of low-noise phase-gate/polarization-gate at single-photon level.

In this paper, we present a theoretical model for studying the interaction between linearly polarized laser light and near-degenerated Zeeman sublevels for a multiple V-type atomic system of {sup 2}S{sub 1/2}F{sub g}=2{yields}{sup 2}P{sub 3/2}F{sub e}=3 transition in {sup 87}Rb. We have calculated the laser absorption in a Hanle configuration, as well as the amplitudes and the widths of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in the range of laser intensities from 0.01 to 40 mW/cm{sup 2}. Our results, showing nonvanishing EIA amplitude, a nonmonotonic increase of the EIA width for the increase of laser intensity, and pronounced shape differences of the Hanle EIA curves at different laser intensities, are in good agreement with recent experimental results. We have found that the EIA behaves differently than the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as a function of the laser intensity. Both the amplitude and width of the EIA have narrow maximums at 1 to 2 mW/cm{sup 2}. We have shown the strong influence of Doppler broadening of atomic transition on Hanle resonances and have suggested the explanation of it.

EIT line shape in an open and partially closed multilevel V-type system

Standing wave pump field induced coherent non-linear resonances in rubidium vapor

Efficient atomic memory using electromagnetically induced absorption

We study theoretically laser excitation of Rydberg triplet states of strontium atoms in the presence of weak microwave (MW) fields. Starting from the ground state $5s^2\,^1S_0$, the Rydberg excitation is realized through the metastable, triplet $5s5p\,^3P_1$ state, whose decay rate $\gamma_2$ is $2\pi\times 7.5$ kHz, much smaller than the one in the singlet state or alkali atoms. The influences of $\gamma_2$ on the transparency and absorption spectrum in the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) regime are examined. Narrow transparent windows (EIT) or absorption peaks (EIA) are found, whose distance in the spectrum depends on the Rabi frequency of the weak MW field. It is found that the spectrum exhibits higher contrast than using the singlet state or alkali atoms in typical situations. Using the metastable intermediate state, we find that resonance fluorescence of Sr gases exhibits very narrow peaks, which are modulated by the MW field. When the MW field is weaker than the probe and control light, the spectrum distance of these peaks are linearly proportional to $\Omega_m$. This allows us to propose a new way to sense very weak MW fields through resonance fluorescence. Our study shows that the Sr triplet state could be used to develop the Rydberg MW electrometry that gains unique advantages.

Quantum interference effects in a multi-driven transition Fg = 3 ↔ Fe = 2

We propose a scheme to construct a two-dimensional Aubry-Andr\'e (AA) model and realize two-dimensional AA localization of light waves via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The system we suggest is a cold, resonant atomic gas with an $N$-type level configuration and interacting with probe, control, assisted, and far-detuned laser fields. We show that under EIT conditions the probe-field envelope obeys a modified nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with a quasiperiodic potential, which becomes a two-dimensional nonlinear AA model when the system parameters are suitably chosen. The quasiperiodic potential is obtained by the cross-phase modulation of the assisted field and the Stark shift of the far-detuned laser field. In addition, the cubic nonlinearity term appearing in the model is contributed by the self-phase modulation of the probe field. We demonstrate that the system can be used to not only realize various two-dimensional AA localizations of light waves, but also to display nonlinearity and dimensionality effects on the AA localizations.

The behavior of multilevel atomic ensembles (e.g., alkali-metal atoms) can be influenced significantly by the intensity of a driving field (or controlling/coupling field). The phase coherence between two transition pathways driven by a probe light and a driving field can lead to the effect known as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In EIT, the probe light can pass through a three-level alkali-metal atomic vapor without absorption or reflection when two coherent resonances (transition pathways driven by the driving and probe fields) are present and the linewidths of the transparency windows are sufficiently narrow. The optical characteristics of atomic systems can also be affected by the Doppler broadening of the absorption profile in a spectroscope. Our analysis indicates that both broadenings (related to the transitions excited by the driving and probe fields) can be expanded, leading to an increase in the transmittance and reflectance broadenings when a coupling field with adaptive strength is applied; the corresponding temperature would, thus, be implemented and readable. We show that the most suitable preparation for temperature sensing via an EIT vapor is to provide 80 times the spontaneous decay rate (SDR) of the excited atomic levels. This configuration results in reflectance and transmittance values that range between zero and one and cover a temperature range of 0 K to 600 K. As an example, we demonstrate the integration of specialized coating technologies with EIT ensembles for temperature sensing in the range of dozens of kelvins at and above room temperature. A key advantage of this temperature-sensing system is its ability to use adaptive resonant visible light as the probe field. This novel approach may find applications in providing unprecedented levels of precision and control in temperature sensing for coating processes and in the design of other photonic or optical devices. It can also be used to determine the temperature-dependent behavior of the specific heat of alkali-metal solids and gases (including the latent heats of vaporization or sublimation of alkali-metal solids) through the reflection and transmission spectra of the vaporized EIT atomic vapors.

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a well-known phenomenon due in part to its applicability to quantum devices such as quantum memories and quantum gates. EIT is commonly modeled with a three-level lambda system; however, this simplified model does not capture all the physics of EIT experiments with real systems. We present a theoretical study of the effect of two closely-spaced excited states on EIT and off-resonance Raman transitions. In addition to the expected broadening of the EIT resonance and reduction in EIT transparency due to multiple excited states, we find some unexpected and interesting results. A comparison with a model that does not allow for coupling of the excited states shows that the coherent interaction of the fields with two excited states whose separation is smaller than their Doppler broadened linewidth can enhance the EIT transparency under some conditions and can enhance and shift the resonance frequency of off-resonance Raman absorption. Furthermore, through a dressed state analysis of the full four-level system, we find that the underlying mechanism for the reduction in EIT transparency is a shift in the two-photon resonance due to unequal dipole moments of the transitions coupled by the control field. Complete transparency can only be recovered for systems with equal dipole moments or when the separation between the two excited states is at least of the order of the Doppler width. To support our theoretical study, we present experimental EIT measurements in the D1 lines of 85Rb and 87Rb that agree with our predictions of an enhancement or reduction of EIT transparency under specific conditions. The experimental results also verify the roles that the dipole moments and the separation between the two excited states have on recovering the EIT transparency.

This paper shows coherence control of multiple electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and switching of a weak probe field through a five-level atomic medium. On the propagation, the probe field with triple resonance (EIT) converts into double- and single- resonance (EIT) by adjusting relative phase of two strong microwave- and optical- field when they are coupled with the medium cyclically and vice versa . This system becomes independent of the wave-vector mismatch of the strong coupling fields and subsequently of the Doppler effect upon coupling the coherent fields co-linearly. Distinct in aim, we further show dephasing induced switching from the single- through the triple colored destructive interference into the ones of the constructive interference in the absorption spectrum to exhibit, in each case, the statistical behavior of a Lorentzian and vice versa .

Since real atomic systems have multiple Zeeman sublevels, one can use polarization states of the coupled laser beams to modulate the strength of the multi-wave mixing processes. By manipulating the dark-state or electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) windows with the polarization states of the laser beams, the multi-wave mixing (MWM) processes can be modified and controlled. Such studies of controllable intermixing between differentorder nonlinear optical processes with phase or polarization states of the laver beams can be very important in high-precision measurements, coherent quantum control, and quantum information processing. In the following, some examples of phase or polarization controlled multi-wave mixing processes in multi-level atomic systems will be described. The degenerate Zeeman sublevels and their dressed-state effects are responsible for these observed phenomena. The relative intensities and polarization characteristics of fourwave mixing (FWM) signals in different laser polarization configurations and different level systems are experimentally investigated and compared. Also the results are theoretically explained by different transition path combinations. In the dressed-FWM processes, the dependence of dressing effect on the incident field’s polarization is shown. The FWM signal generated by a linearly-polarized pumping field is suppressed more by the dressing field than the one generated by a circularly-polarized pumping field. However, an opposite effect was observed when the probe field’s polarization is changed.

Enhanced effects of subluminal and superluminal propagation

When a pump field and probe field simultaneously drive an electronic-state atomic transition, the probe field absorption spectrum can consist of an absorption peak centered near \ensuremath{\Delta}'=0 and amplification peak centered near \ensuremath{\Delta}'=2\ensuremath{\Delta} (\ensuremath{\Delta} and \ensuremath{\Delta}' are the pump and probe field detunings from the atomic transition frequency, respectively). This type of spectrum is seen in the limit \ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\gg}\ensuremath{\chi}\ensuremath{\gg}\ensuremath{\Gamma}, where \ensuremath{\chi} is the Rabi frequency associated with the pump field and 2\ensuremath{\Gamma} is the homogeneous width associated with the atomic transition. For atoms cooled below the recoil limit of laser cooling, the qualitative nature of the probe absorption spectrum can undergo a dramatic change. Provided that the recoil splitting ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{\mathit{k}}$ is larger than the homogeneous decay rate (as might occur in the case of a forbidden transition), the absorption and amplification features each split into an absorption-amplification doublet. In addition, structure is found in the probe absorption spectrum near \ensuremath{\Delta}'=\ensuremath{\Delta}; this structure consists of two absorption-amplification doublets. Both doublets can be resolved if ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{\mathit{k}}$>\ensuremath{\Gamma}. If ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{\mathit{k}}$, one of the doublets can be resolved provided that ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{\mathit{k}}$>${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathit{A}}$, where ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathit{A}}$ is some effective atomic ground state width in the problem. The positions, widths, and relative weights of all the components are readily predicted using a dressed-atom theory in which quantization of the center-of-mass momentum is included. An analytical expression for the probe field spectrum is obtained for a simple case in which spontaneous decay to the lower level is neglected. Validity criteria for the results are discussed.