Ultraslow and superluminal light propagation in a four-level atomic system

Cui, Cui-Li; Jia, Jinbiao; Gao, Jinliang; Xue, Yifeng; Wang, Gang; Wu, Jin-Hui

doi:10.1103/physreva.76.033815

Cited by 41 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In contrast to the sharp increase in resonant transmission that characterises EIT, these effects are identified by a resonant transmission that can be decreased by the presence of additional control fields. A concomitant change in sign of dispersion can be used to switch between subluminal and superluminal light propagation [9][10][11][12]. Early work on EIA focussed on Zeeman-degenerate systems, where the interpretations of the phenomenon relied upon transfer of coherence [13][14][15] or population [16], with a minimum of four levels.…”

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confidence: 99%

Electromagnetically induced absorption in a nondegenerate three-level ladder system

et al. 2015

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We investigate, theoretically and experimentally, the transmission of light through a thermal vapour of three-level ladder-type atoms, in the presence of 2 counter-propagating control fields. A simple theoretical model predicts the presence of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in this pure three-level system when the control field is resonant. Experimentally, we use 87 Rb in a large magnetic field of 0.62 T to reach the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime and realise a non-degenerate three-level system. Experimental observations verify the predictions over a wide range of detunings.The study of coherent phenomena in driven multi-level atomic systems is an active area of research [1]. Threelevel atoms driven by two applied fields display a variety of effects, including electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [2] and coherent population trapping [3]. By adding further fields and states, different phenomena have been observed such as the appearance of electromagnetically induced gratings/Bragg reflection [4][5][6] and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) [7,8]. In contrast to the sharp increase in resonant transmission that characterises EIT, these effects are identified by a resonant transmission that can be decreased by the presence of additional control fields. A concomitant change in sign of dispersion can be used to switch between subluminal and superluminal light propagation [9][10][11][12]. Early work on EIA focussed on Zeeman-degenerate systems, where the interpretations of the phenomenon relied upon transfer of coherence [13][14][15] or population [16], with a minimum of four levels. More recently, EIA has been observed in a degenerate lambda system [17] and also in a four-level N -system [18], even when the degeneracy is lifted by applying a small magnetic field. The effects of thermal motion have also been investigated [19].Here we present the first experimental observation of EIA in a non-degenerate three-level ladder system. In a thermal 87 Rb vapour, the degeneracy is lifted by a strong magnetic field, in which the atoms enter the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime [20][21][22] where all transitions are separated in frequency by more than the Doppler width. EIA is observed by detecting the transmission of a weak probe beam [23] through the atomic vapor which is dressed by both co-and counter-propagating control beams. The control beams have the same optical frequency and are resonant with an excited-state transition forming a ladder system similar to standard EIT configurations [24]. A model based on [25] reproduces the experimental results and highlights the prominent role of fast atoms.The richness of this system comes from multi-photon resonances involving both control beams, that can occur for moving atoms. In the rest frame of an atom moving with velocity v, the two control fields of wavenumber k c * daniel.whiting@durham.ac.uk For even numbers of control photons (ii) we can form resonances between states |1 and |2 forThe interaction between these resonances and the main two-level ...

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Electromagnetically induced absorption in a nondegenerate three-level ladder system

et al. 2015

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“…In this context, the present model of five-level system is a straightforward extension of a four-level tripod system [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] toward double weak-probe fields. In such a tripod system, Ham and Hemmer proposed and demonstrated the first all-optical switching by using an enhanced nondegenerate four-wave mixing technique [47].…”

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confidence: 99%

Dual-channel all-optical switching with tunable frequency in a five-level double-ladder atomic system

Ding

Yang

2011

Optics Communications

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“…Atomic coherence is essential for many optical phenomena, including coherent population trapping (CPT) [1], electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [2,3], amplification without inversion [4,5], slow and fast light [6], and enhancement of nonlinear frequency conversion [7][8][9][10][11], etc. And the adiabatic variation of atomic coherence plays an important role in storage and retrieval of light field [3,[12][13][14][15][16], stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STI-RAP) [17,18], Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passage (SCRAP) [10,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of coherence dynamics based on coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering

Kou

Wan

Kang

et al. 2009

Optics Communications

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Ultraslow and superluminal light propagation in a four-level atomic system

Cited by 41 publications

References 29 publications

Electromagnetically induced absorption in a nondegenerate three-level ladder system

Electromagnetically induced absorption in a nondegenerate three-level ladder system

Dual-channel all-optical switching with tunable frequency in a five-level double-ladder atomic system

Measurement of coherence dynamics based on coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering

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