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Physical Review A

Bloch oscillations of polaritons of an atomic ensemble in magnetic fields

H. R. Zhang, C. P. Sun

Published Jun 30, 2010• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study a washboard potential in a light-driven ensemble of three-level atoms induced by the externally applied magnetic fields under electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We find that a dark-state polariton, which is formed by an atomic ensemble dressed by the photon can display a typical quantum interference effect (i.e., the quasiparticle Bloch oscillation). The dark-state polariton is subjected to a washboard configuration potential with a spatially uniform force and a periodic potential provided by the linearly and periodically external magnetic fields, respectively. Due to the slower group velocity of the photons in the EIT medium, the period of Bloch oscillation can achieve a millisecond order of magnitude. Also, in our protocol, the Bloch oscillation of the dark-state polariton is feasibly modulated through the applied control and magnetic fields.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.81.063427

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We study a washboard potential in a light-driven ensemble of three-level atoms induced by the externally applied magnetic fields under electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We find that a dark-state polariton, which is formed by an atomic ensemble dressed by the photon can display a typical quantum interference effect (i.e., the quasiparticle Bloch oscillation). The dark-state polariton is subjected to a washboard configuration potential with a spatially uniform force and a periodic potential provided by the linearly and periodically external magnetic fields, respectively. Due to the slower group velocity of the photons in the EIT medium, the period of Bloch oscillation can achieve a millisecond order of magnitude. Also, in our protocol, the Bloch oscillation of the dark-state polariton is feasibly modulated through the applied control and magnetic fields.
Electromagnetically induced transparency allows for light transmission through dense atomic media by means of quantum interference of absorption amplitudes. Media exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency have interesting properties, such as very slow group velocities. Associated with the slow light propagation are quasiparticles, so-called dark polaritons, which are mixtures of a photonic and an atomic contribution. Here, we demonstrate that these excitations behave as particles with a nonzero magnetic moment, which is in clear contrast to the properties of a free photon. It is found that circularily polarized light passing through a rubidium gas cell under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency is deflected by a small magnetic field gradient. The deflection angle is proportional to the propagation time of an optical pulse through the cell. The observed beam deflection can be understood by assuming that dark state polaritons have an effective magnetic moment. This is attributed to the spin wave contribution that develops upon entry of light into the medium. Our experiment can be described in terms of a Stern-Gerlach experiment for the dark polaritons.
The quest of utilizing neutral particles to simulate the behaviour of charged particles in a magnetic field makes the generation of artificial magnetic field of great interest. The previous and the only proposal for the production of synthetic magnetic field for the dark state polaritons in electromagnetically induced transparency invokes the mechanical rotation of a sample. Here, we put forward an optical scheme to generate effective gauge potentials for stationary-light polaritons. 5To demonstrate the capabilities of our approach, we present recipes for having dark state polaritons in degenerate Landau levels and in driven quantum harmonic oscillator. Our scheme paves a novel way towards the investigation of the bosonic analogue of the fractional quantum Hall effect by electromagnetically induced transparency.
For all known massive particles, the value of the magnetic dipole moment is different from zero. In contrast, photons in vacuum have no magnetic moment. Here, we describe experimental studies that show that light, when transmitted through a dense atomic medium under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), can behave as if it has acquired a magnetic dipole moment. In the area of solid-state physics, such effective particle properties (e.g. effective masses) are well known. In our experiments, slow light passing through a rubidium gas cell is deflected when exposed to a magnetic field gradient. The beam deflection is proportional to the propagation time through the cell and can be understood by assuming that dark-state polaritons have a nonzero effective magnetic moment aligned collinearly to the optical propagation axis. In more recent experiments, we have studied different dark-state configurations. We observe EIT, slow group velocities and stored light in a transverse magnetic field configuration, where the moving magnetic dipole is directed orthogonal to the optical propagation axis. The latter can be used for further studies of the quasiparticle properties of dark-state polaritons.
We study the influence of a lossless material medium on the coherent storage and quantum-state transfer of a quantized probe light in an ensemble of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms. The medium is modeled as uniformly distributed two-level atoms with the same energy level spacing, coupling to a probe light. This coupled system can be simplified to a collection of two-mode polaritons which couple to one transition of the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms. We show that, when the other transition of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms is controlled by a classical light, electromagnetically induced transparency can also occur for the polaritons. In this case the coherent storage and quantum transfer for photon states are achievable through novel dark states with respect to the polaritons. By calculating the corresponding dispersion relation, we find that the ensemble of three-level atoms with $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type transitions may serve as quantum memory for it slows or even stops light propagation through the mechanism of electromagnetically induced transparency.
Polaritons are the collective excitations of many atoms dressed by resonant photons, which can be used to explain the slow light propagation with the mechanism of electromagnetically induced transparency. As quasiparticles, these collective excitations possess the typical feature of the matter particles, which can be reflected and deflected by the inhomogeneous medium in its spatial motion with some velocity. In this paper we develop a quantum theory to systematically describe the spatial motion of polaritons in inhomogeneous magnetic and optical fields. This theoretical approach treats these quasiparticles through an effective Schr\"odinger equation with anisotropic dispersion that the longitudinal motion is similar to an ultrarelativistic motion of a ``slow light velocity'' while the transverse motion is of nonrelativity with certain effective mass. We find that, after passing through the EIT medium, the light ray bends due to the spatial-dependent profile of external field. This phenomenon explicitly demonstrates the exotic corpuscular and anisotropic property of polaritons.