Electromagnetically induced transparency in optical microcavities

Abstract

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)is a quantum interference effect arising from different transition pathways of optical fields. Within the transparency window, both absorption and dispersion properties strongly change, which results in extensive applications such as slow light and optical storage. Due to the ultrahigh quality factors, massive production on a chip and convenient all-optical control, optical microcavities provide an ideal platform for realizing EIT. Here we review the principle and recent development of EIT in optical microcavities. We focus on the following three situations. First, for a coupled-cavity system, all-optical EIT appears when the optical modes in different cavities couple to each other. Second, in a single microcavity, all-optical EIT is created when interference happens between two optical modes. Moreover, the mechanical oscillation of the microcavity leads to optomechanically induced transparency. Then the applications of EIT effect in microcavity systems are discussed, including light delay and storage, sensing, and field enhancement. A summary is then given in the final part of the paper.

Fano Resonance in Artificial Photonic Molecules

“…[ 1 ] In his formula, the asymmetric line shape originates from the interference between discrete states and continuum states. [ 83,85,86,90,114–118 ] The Fano profile, different from the symmetric Lorentzian profile, can be described by the following equation [ 2,83–86 ] where the normalized frequency detuning, ω is the frequency of the incident light, ω 0 is the resonance frequency, Γ is the narrow resonance bandwidth, F 0 denotes the amplitude of the Fano resonance, A 0 is the background component, c is the velocity of light in vacuum, and q is the Fano parameter, which is the ratio between the resonant state and nonresonant state. As shown in Figure 1b, | q |→ ∞ and q = 0 correspond to Lorentzian line shape and quasi‐Lorentzian line shape, respectively.…”

“…For the resonant field, both the transitions from |2〉 to |3〉 and |3〉 to |2〉 introduce a π/2 phase shift, so the phase shift between the direct path and indirect path is equal to π, and the transitions cancel. [ 1,114 ]…”

Controllable optical bistability and Fano line shape in a hybrid optomechanical system assisted by kerr medium: possibility of all optical switching

“…Cavity optomechanics is a rapidly growing field of research in which a coherent coupling between the cavity optical modes and the mechanical modes of the oscillator can be achieved via the radiation pressure exerted by the trapped cavity photons [15][16][17][18][19]. Rapid technological advance-ments in this field has led to marked achievements such as ultrahigh-precision measurements [20], gravitational wave detectors [21], quantum information processing [22,23], quantum entanglement [24][25][26] and optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. In optomechanical systems, a high degree of nonlinearity exists between the optical field and mechanical mode, which gives rise to optical bistability and multistability [34,[36][37][38].…”

“…EIT is a quantum interference effect arising from different transition pathways of optical fields [35]. In the EIT effect, an abnormal dispersion occurs with the opening of a transparency window, resulting in slow light i.e reduction of light group velocity [52,53].…”

Dynamically configurable, successively switchable multispectral plasmon-induced transparency

“…The analogue of Electromagnetic Induced Transparency (EIT) in plasmonic systems known as PIT, has led to intriguing new optical effects and has sparked increased interest in applications such as slow light, sensing, optical filters, enhanced nonlinear effects, optical information processing and optical switches [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The principle of PIT relies on the destructive interference between two resonant transition pathways, a direct excitation of a dipole-allowed brightmode, and an indirect excitation of a metastable dark-mode, rendering a transparency window at selective resonant frequencies, [1][2][3][4][5]. A number of advantages are associated with PIT compared to its quantum counterpart EIT, including room-temperature operation, wide bandwidth, compactness and ease of integration with nanophotonic circuits, [6][7][8][9][10].…”