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arXiv:0804.2306 · Physical Review Letters

Optical Bistability at Low Light Level due to Collective Atomic Recoil

Mukund Vengalattore, Mohammad Hafezi, Mikhail D. Lukin, Mara Goff Prentiss

Published Aug 8, 2008• 25 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate optical nonlinearities due to the interaction of weak optical fields with the collective motion of a strongly dispersive ultracold gas. The combination of a recoil-induced resonance in the high gain regime and optical waveguiding within the dispersive medium enables us to achieve a collective atomic cooperativity of 275+/-50 even in the absence of a cavity. As a result, we observe optical bistability at input powers as low as 20 pW. The present scheme allows for dynamic optical control of the dispersive properties of the ultracold gas using very weak pulses of light. The experimental observations are in good agreement with a theoretical model.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.101.063901

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We demonstrate optical nonlinearities due to the interaction of weak optical fields with the collective motion of a strongly dispersive ultracold gas. The combination of a recoil-induced resonance in the high gain regime and optical waveguiding within the dispersive medium enables us to achieve a collective atomic cooperativity of 275+/-50 even in the absence of a cavity. As a result, we observe optical bistability at input powers as low as 20 pW. The present scheme allows for dynamic optical control of the dispersive properties of the ultracold gas using very weak pulses of light. The experimental observations are in good agreement with a theoretical model.
We report on Kerr nonlinearity and dispersive optical bistability of a Fabry-Perot optical resonator due to the displacement of ultracold atoms trapped within. In the driven resonator, such collective motion is induced by optical forces acting upon up to 10(5) 87Rb atoms prepared in the lowest band of a one-dimensional intracavity optical lattice. The longevity of atomic motional coherence allows for strongly nonlinear optics at extremely low cavity photon numbers, as demonstrated by the observation of both branches of optical bistability at photon numbers below unity.
We demonstrate radial confinement and waveguiding of light in an ultracold anisotropic gas. The waveguiding medium is a laser cooled ensemble of rubidium atoms confined in a trap of large aspect ratio. A recoil induced resonance (RIR) is used to create strong dispersion and large gain in this ensemble. The combination of the anisotropic trap and the RIR give rise to a spatially varying group refractive index resulting in a slow-light optical waveguide. Waveguided pulses of light experience strong gain (approximately 50), low group velocities (c approximately 1500 m/s), and long group delays (delta approximately 7 micros) due to the enhanced path length.
The interaction between Bose Einstein condensates (BECs) and coherent light fields is treated within the framework of nonlinear wave mixing and studied using techniques developed in the fields of nonlinear and quantum optics. We focus in particular on two situations involving a BEC driven by a strong off-resonant 'pump' laser. First, we consider the case where the laser light is scattered into a single mode of an optical ring cavity. We then consider the case where the light is scattered into the continuum of vacuum modes of the electric field. The first problem is an extension of recent theoretical and experimental work on the so-called collective atomic recoil laser (CARL), whereas the second corresponds to a recent condensate-superradiance experiment performed at MIT. In the cavity situation, we develop a CARL model in which both the atomic and optical fields are treated fully quantum mechanically. We first show that the previous CARL model, which treats the atomic motion classically, breaks down at the recoil temperature due to the effects of matter-wave diffraction. We then show that when combined with a BEC the CARL can be viewed as a device which parametrically amplifies atomic and optical fields. The existence of entanglement and non-classical intensity correlations between the amplified atomic and optical fields is demonstrated, as well as the ability to manipulate the quantum statistical properties of the matter and light waves by injecting a weak laser field into the optical cavity to trigger the device. By replacing the cavity mode with a continuum of modes, we are able to formulate a quantum theory of condensate superradiance in which the scattered light field is eliminated in the Markov approximation. This model shows that condensate depletion leads to mode competition which prevents light scattering in all but the preferred direction(s). The outcome of the mode-competition is highly sensitive to the quantum fluctuations which trigger the phenomenon, resulting in large run-to-run variations in the angular pattern of the superradiant light pulse, an effect which is observed experimentally.
We study the optomechanical interaction of a Bose–Einstein condensate with a single longitudinal mode of an ultra-high finesse standing wave optical resonator. As a unique feature the resonator combines three extreme regimes, previously not realized together, i.e., strong cooperative coupling, cavity dominated scattering with a Purcell factor far above unity, and sub-recoil resolution provided by a cavity damping rate smaller than four times the single photon recoil frequency. We present experimental observations in good agreement with a two-mode model predicting highly nonlinear dynamics with signatures as bistability, hysteresis, persistent oscillations, and superradiant back-scattering instabilities.
We study the collective motion of atoms confined in an optical lattice operating inside a high-finesse ring cavity. A simplified theoretical model for the dynamics of the system is developed upon the assumption of adiabaticity of the atomic motion. We show that in a regime where the light shift per photon times the number of atoms exceeds the linewidth of the cavity resonance, the otherwise tiny retroaction of the atoms upon the light field becomes a significant feature of the system. As a result dispersive optical bistability can arise and the lattice positions is determined by the strength of the atom-cavity coupling rather than by the phases of the incoupled light beams. Solving the complete set of classical equations of motion confirms these findings, however, additional nonadiabatic phenomena are predicted, such as, for example, self-induced radial breathing oscillations. We compare these results with experiments involving laser-cooled 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms trapped in an optical lattice inside a ring cavity with a finesse of $1.8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$. Our observations are in excellent agreement with our theoretical predictions.
We determine the transmission of light through a planar atomic array beyond the limit of low light intensity that displays optical bistability in the mean-field regime. We develop a theory describing the intrinsic optical bistability, which is supported purely by resonant dipole-dipole interactions in free space, showing how bistable light amplitudes exhibit both strong cooperative and weak single-atom responses and how they depend on the underlying low light intensity collective excitation eigenmodes. Similarities of the theory with optical bistability in cavities are highlighted, while recurrent light scattering between atoms takes on the role of cavity mirrors. Our numerics and analytic estimates show a sharp variation in the extinction, reflectivity, and group delays of the array, with the incident light completely extinguished up to a critical intensity well beyond the low light intensity limit. Our analysis paves a way for collective nonlinear optics with cooperatively responding dense atomic ensembles.