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arXiv:1902.01120 · Physical Review A

Quantum properties of light propagating in a coherent-population-oscillation storage medium

Pascal Neveu, Fabien Bretenaker, Fabienne Goldfarb, E. Brion

Published Jul 12, 2019• 4 citations

Abstract

We study the propagation and storage of a quantum field using ultranarrow coherent population oscillations (CPOs) in a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-type atomic medium. The predictions for classical fields are checked experimentally in a vapor at room temperature. We derive the evolution of its squeezing spectrum in the presence of a large classical pump field which enables CPOs to exist. We show that the spontaneous emission of the residual population pumped into the excited state progressively destroys the quantum noise properties of the quantum field along propagation. The output quantum field therefore tends to be a coherent state, discarding the possibility to store quantum states of light with CPO.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.100.013820

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We study the propagation and storage of a quantum field using ultranarrow coherent population oscillations (CPOs) in a

\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}

-type atomic medium. The predictions for classical fields are checked experimentally in a vapor at room temperature. We derive the evolution of its squeezing spectrum in the presence of a large classical pump field which enables CPOs to exist. We show that the spontaneous emission of the residual population pumped into the excited state progressively destroys the quantum noise properties of the quantum field along propagation. The output quantum field therefore tends to be a coherent state, discarding the possibility to store quantum states of light with CPO.

We report the experimental observation of Coherent Population Oscillation (CPO) based light storage in an atomic vapor cell at room temperature. Using the ultranarrow CPO between the ground levels of a

\Lambda

system selected by polarization in metastable

^4

He, such a light storage is experimentally shown to be phase preserving. As it does not involve any atomic coherences it has the advantage of being robust to dephasing effects such as small magnetic field inhomogeneities. The storage time is limited by the population lifetime of the ground states of the

\Lambda

system.

We theoretically study the propagation and storage of a classical field in a Λ-type atomic medium using coherent population oscillations (CPOs). We show that the propagation eigenmodes strongly relate to the different CPO modes of the system. Light storage in such modes is discussed by introducing a "populariton" quantity, a mixture of populations and field, by analogy to the dark state polariton used in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency light storage protocol. As experimentally shown, this memory relies on populations and is then-by contrast with usual Raman coherence optical storage protocols-robust to dephasing effects.

We report the experimental observation of coherent population oscillation (CPO-) based light storage in an atomic vapor cell at room temperature. Using the ultranarrow CPO between the ground levels of a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system selected by polarization in metastable

^4

, such a light storage is experimentally shown to be phase preserving. As it does not involve any atomic coherences it has the advantage of being robust to dephasing effects such as small magnetic field inhomogeneities. The storage time is limited by the population lifetime of the ground states of the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system.

We report on the storage of light via the phenomenon of coherent population oscillation (CPO) in an atomic cesium vapor at room temperature. In the experiment the optical information of a probe field is stored in the CPO of two ground states of a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ three-level system formed by the Zeeman sublevels of the hyperfine transition $F=3\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=2$ of the cesium

{D}_{2}

line. We show directly that this CPO-based memory is very insensitive to stray magnetic field inhomogeneities and presents a lifetime which is limited mainly by atomic motion. A theoretical simulation of the measured spectra was also developed and is in very good agreement with the experiment.

We demonstrate the possibility to generate squeezed vacuum states of light by four wave mixing (FWM) enabled coherent population trapping in a metastable helium cell at room temperature. Contrary to usual FWM far detuned schemes, we work at resonance with an atomic transition. We investigate the properties of such states and show that the noise variances of the squeezed and anti-squeezed quadratures cannot be explained by the simple presence of losses. A specific model allows us to demonstrate the role played by spontaneous emitted photons, which experience squeezing while propagation inside of the cell. This theoretical model, which takes into account both residual absorption and spontaneous emission, leads to an excellent agreement with the experimental data without any adjusted parameter.