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Physical Review A

Interferometric control of parametrically amplified waveforms

Utsab Khadka, Huaibin Zheng, Min Xiao

Published Oct 6, 2011• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Using atomic coherence, four-wave-mixing radiation is generated between the excited states of a ladder-type configuration in rubidium atomic vapor. By using all-optical phase control between the two frequency-swept driving beams connecting the two lower levels, the generated signal is phase modulated across its bandwidth. When homodyned with a local oscillator, such phase control looks promising for applications including waveform shaping and high-resolution metrology. Experimental observations of signal line shape symmetrization, linewidth narrowing, and bandwidth switching are demonstrated.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.043814

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Using atomic coherence, four-wave-mixing radiation is generated between the excited states of a ladder-type configuration in rubidium atomic vapor. By using all-optical phase control between the two frequency-swept driving beams connecting the two lower levels, the generated signal is phase modulated across its bandwidth. When homodyned with a local oscillator, such phase control looks promising for applications including waveform shaping and high-resolution metrology. Experimental observations of signal line shape symmetrization, linewidth narrowing, and bandwidth switching are demonstrated.
In this thesis, atomic coherence is used to enhance nonlinear optical processes in multi-level atoms. The multi-photon transitions are driven resonantly, and at the same time without absorptive losses, by using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), thereby allowing the study of χ(3) and χ(5) nonlinearities using weak driving fields. The coherently modified probe beam(s) and the atom-radiated signal fields arising from four- and six- wave- mixing (FWM and SWM) processes are measured in the spectral, temporal and spatial domains. In a three-level ladder-type atomic system, multiple peaks having spectral asymmetries are observed in the EIT window as well as in the FWM signal waveforms due to the diverse multiplicities of the participating atomic states. Using phase control tailored in the frequency domain, we demonstrate all-optical methods to control these spectral waveforms and discuss applications involving waveform-shaping and metrology. For the EIT study we demonstrate a switching of multiple dark peaks into bright peaks via phase-control of interferences in the underlying dark-states. In the FWM study we demonstrate all-optical spectral line shape symmetrization, linewidth narrowing and bandwidth switching. In a four-level inverted-Y-type atomic system, we drive and measure coexisting and phase-matched FWM and SWM signals. By using precision control of the relative phase and amplitude between these two processes of different nonlinear orders, we demonstrate phase coherence between them. First, a single-phase measurement is performed in the temporal and spatial domains, and the interferogram is used to measure the resonant frequency of the 5D5/2-5P3/2 atomic transition in 85Rb. Second, the method is extended to realize a capacity for two-phase measurement. In this case, the spectral bandwidth of the signal is modified in order to measure the phase-shift occurring in one Mach-Zehnder interferometer, while the intensity of the total signal waveform measures the phase-shift occurring in a second interferometer. Finally, we demonstrate phase-dependent spatial fusion between two ultra-weak optical fields by using a strong coupling field to first convert the weak fields into bosonic dark-state polaritons, which are then steered into a common all-optical waveguide mode arising due to the coupling field's intensity distribution and the resulting cross-Kerr refractive index gradient.
Four-wave-mixing (FWM) radiation is generated between the hyperfine structures of the 5D and 5P states in a thermally broadened rubidium atomic vapor using resonant atomic coherence. Background-free unidirectional signals having narrow spectral linewidths are isolated and experimentally studied in the frequency domain, and the effects of the driving beam parameters on the properties of the radiation are discussed. The radiation has several new properties compared to traditional FWM radiations generated between the 5P and 5S states. The high-resolution signals obtained in this method could make it favorable in spectroscopic procedures that rely on two-photon fluorescence.
We demonstrate a new phase-matching geometry for four-wave mixing processes in hot Rb85 vapor, in which all four fields propagate in different directions but two of them are degenerate in frequency. When used as a parametric amplifier with an injected seed, two types of quantum mechanically correlated twin-beam states, either frequency degenerate or nondegenerate, can be generated. The quantum noise reduction in the intensity difference is almost 7 dB for the nondegenerate type and nearly 5 dB for the degenerate type. The spatial nondegeneracy of the four waves allows a variety of configurations of parametric processes, leading to flexible control for both phase insensitive and sensitive parametric amplification. The spatially nondegenerate but frequency degenerate four-wave mixing process will find wide applications in quantum metrology, quantum communication, and quantum information of continuous variables.
We investigate the optical nonreciprocity induced by the parametrical amplification and the radiation trapping in an atomic photonic bandgap system both theoretically and experimentally. We use two pumping fields to generate entangled photon pairs from spontaneous parametric four-wave mixing, as well as the signals in which they can be enhanced by the feedback dressing effect. Therefore, the frequency difference and the shape change due to this feedback dressing on the two-arm ramps of one round trip are observed. Such optical nonreciprocity can be easily controlled by multiple experimental parameters (frequency detuning, power, and phase) of the dressing beams. In addition, the enhancement and suppression switching induced by the double dressing or triple dressing conditions are also studied. This optical nonreciprocity can contribute to the development of quantum information processing and quantum communications.
The nonlinear parametric process is of great significance for achieving high-quality coherent optical signals and quantum correlated photons. With the development of classical and quantum information processing, the study of the properties of parametric processes is evolving in complex scenarios of multimode, which is limited in conventional nonlinear media due to strict phase matching, e.g. nonlinear crystals. Here we study the dressing-energy-level-cascaded four-wave mixing process to generate multimode optical parametric signals. Via cascading double-Λ type configuration of 85 Rb D 1 line, the non-degenerate energy-level-cascaded FWM is constructed to generate multimode self-parametric amplification. Moreover, with the dressing effects based on atomic coherence, the spatial and frequency multimode characteristics of energy-level-cascaded FWM parametric amplification, i.e., the modes number and pattern, are actively modulated by the pump fields detuning. Also, the spatial modes from the coupling of two coexisting spontaneous parametric FWMs can be controlled to reach tremendous scalability via the atomic coherence and Kerr non-linearity. The atomic coherence effects and unique phase-matching symmetry nature allow flexible modulation of the multimode property of the generated parametric signals within a nonlinear device, which paves a way for multimode classical and quantum information processing.