Electromagnetically induced transparency for guided light in an atomic array outside an optical nanofiber

Abstract

We study the propagation of guided light along an array of three-level atoms in the vicinity of an optical nanofiber under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency. We examine two schemes of atomic levels and field polarizations where the guided probe field is quasilinearly polarized along the major or minor principal axis, which is parallel or perpendicular, respectively, to the radial direction of the atomic position. Our numerical calculations indicate that 200 cesium atoms in a linear array with a length of 100 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ at a distance of 200 nm from the surface of a nanofiber with a radius of 250 nm can slow down the speed of guided probe light by a factor of about $3.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ (the corresponding group delay is about 1.17 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s})$. In the neighborhood of the Bragg resonance, a significant fraction of the guided probe light can be reflected back with a negative group delay. The reflectivity and the group delay of the reflected field do not depend on the propagation direction of the probe field. However, when the input guided light is quasilinearly polarized along the major principal axis, the transmittivity and the group delay of the transmitted field substantially depend on the propagation direction of the probe field. Under the Bragg resonance condition, an array of atoms prepared in an appropriate internal state can transmit guided light polarized along the major principal in one specific direction even in the limit of infinitely large atom numbers. The directionality of transmission of guided light through the array of atoms is a consequence of the existence of a longitudinal component of the guided light field as well as the ellipticity of both the field polarization and the atomic dipole vector.