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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Coherently induced birefringence

Stephan Wielandy, Alexander L. Gaeta

Published Jan 20, 2003• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Quantum coherence phenomena offer a powerful method of controlling the optical properties of an atomic vapor, such as the absorption and refractive index. We demonstrate the use of quantum coherence to induce controllable birefringence in an atomic vapor and to thereby provide complete and efficient control over the polarization state of a probe laser beam propagating through the vapor. Quantum coherence has been previously observed to produce small polarization rotations, but these experiments suffered from significant absorption loss and produced rotations of at most a few degrees. Our experiments demonstrate the ability to induce linear or circular birefringence in an initially isotropic system that can be used to change the polarization state of a probe beam from linear to any desired polarization state with a total energy throughput greater than 97%.

DOI
10.1109/qels.1999.807642

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Summary form only given. Quantum coherence phenomena offer a powerful method of controlling the optical properties of an atomic vapor, such as the absorption and refractive index. We demonstrate the use of quantum coherence to induce controllable birefringence in an atomic vapor and to thereby provide complete and efficient control over the polarization state of a probe laser beam propagating through the vapor. Quantum coherence has been previously observed to produce small polarization rotations, but these experiments suffered from significant absorption loss and produced rotations of at most a few degrees. Our experiments demonstrate the ability to induce linear or circular birefringence in an initially isotropic system that can be used to change the polarization state of a probe beam from linear to any desired polarization state with a total energy throughput greater than 97%.
Summary form only given. Summary from only given. An isotropic medium, having atoms with m degenerate sublevels, when subjected to a magnetic field, can induce birefringence in the medium. As a result, the plane of polarization of a probe field rotates. This rotation is due to the fact that the magnetic field creates asymmetry between the susceptibilities /spl chi//spl plusmn/ of the medium corresponding to the /spl sigma//spl plusmn/ component of the probe field. We apply a coherent control field which modifies /spl chi//spl plusmn/. Therefore the rotation of probe polarization, due to magnetic field alone, can be controlled efficiently with the use of the control field. We demonstrate this enhancement of the magneto-optical rotation (MOR) of a linearly polarized light.
We demonstrate all-optical control of birefringence in a cold atomic cloud of ytterbium. By optically dressing the excited 3P1^{3}\mathrm{P}_13P1​ state via an off-resonant coupling to the 3D1^{3}\mathrm{D}_13D1​ level, we induce polarization-dependent light shifts of the Zeeman sublevels, resulting in a tunable polarization-dependent refractive index. For a circularly polarized dressing beam, we observe a rotation of the probe linear polarization, characteristic of the Faraday effect, in the absence of any magnetic field. In addition, for a linearly polarized dressing beam, the probe acquires ellipticity without rotation, corresponding to linear birefringence. More generally, the polarization of the dressing beam controls the axis of rotation of the probe polarization on the Poincaré sphere. Our results establish cold atoms as a versatile platform for engineering and controlling light-induced birefringence and open new perspectives for the fast and reconfigurable control of optical response of resonant media.
In recent years, vector beams (VBs) with spatially varying polarization profiles have been used in many fields. Here we study the transmission properties of a hybrid VB passing through atomic vapor. We observe a four-petal pattern which is induced by the rapid transport of atomic coherence. This intensity distribution can be modified by coherence attenuation and absorption enhancement controlled by an external magnetic field. A second experiment with orthogonal circularly polarized states shows that the quantum coherence can be induced by two spatially separated laser beams and support our interpretation of our results for the hybrid VB experiment. Our results may have applications in optical manipulation, the measurement of magnetic fields, and the study of quantum coherence in atomic ensembles.
Abstract The multiplicity of atomic states (and the transitions between them) offer an innate, coherent platform through which microwave and optical fields effectively interact. In an atomic vapor near room temperature, we combine optical and microwave fields to generate a macroscopic internal angular momentum among the atoms—an atomic polarization—at an arbitrary angle with respect to the optical (laser) beam. This geometric freedom enables microwave control over photonic degrees of freedom, which we use in two demonstrations: using microwave-assisted optical pumping, we can rotate linear polarization through several degrees, and we can control the absorption for specific transitions and polarizations, which has applications for microwave-to-optical transduction.
We report a proof-of-principle experiment where the refractive index of an atomic vapor is enhanced while maintaining vanishing absorption of the beam. The key idea is to drive alkali atoms in a vapor with appropriate control lasers and induce a gain resonance and an absorption resonance for a probe beam in a two-photon Raman configuration. The strength and the position of these two resonances can be manipulated by changing the parameters of the control lasers. By using the interference between these two resonances, we obtain an enhanced refractive index without an increase in the absorption.