Slow-light nonlinear optics with cold atoms

J. F. Chen, M. M. T. Loy, George K. Wong +1 more

Shengwang Du

Jin‐Hui Wu, M. Artoni, Giuseppe Carlo La Rocca

We show how to realize in a cold atomic sample a dynamic magneto-optically controlled cavity in which a slow-light pulse can be confined and released on demand. The probe optical pulse is retrieved from the atomic spin coherence initially stored within the cavity and is subsequently confined there subject to a slow-light regime with little loss and diffusion for time intervals as long as a few hundred microseconds before being extracted from either side of the cavity. Our proof-of-principle scheme illustrates the underlying physics of this new mechanism for coherent light confinement and manipulation in cold atoms. This may ease the realization of nonlinear interactions between weak light pulses where strong atom-photon interactions are required for quantum information processing.

Hoonsoo Kang, Gessler Hernandez, Yifu Zhu

The group velocity of a light pulse propagating through a four-level system exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency can be manipulated by a pump laser. The pump laser induces the large optical nonlinearities with steep normal or anomalous dispersion. We present experimental measurements that demonstrate both slow and superluminal light propagation in cold Rb atoms.

Shengwang Du

Stephen E. Harris

The paper describes two types of nonlinear optical processes which are based on electromagnetically induced transparency. These are: (1) Collinear generation of FM-like Raman sidebands and (2) a type of pondermotive light scattering which is inherent to the interaction of slow light with cold atoms. Connections to other areas of EIT-based nonlinear optics are also described.