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Optics and Photonics News

The Story Behind "Stopped Light"

Ronald Lee Walsworth, Susanne F. Yelin, Mikhail D. Lukin

Published May 1, 2002• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Opaque media can be made transparent by use of quantum mechanical interference, enabling fascinating phenomena with potential applications in both classical and quantum information processing. In particular, recent laboratory demonstrations have shown that light pulses can be slowed down and effectively brought to a standstill in coherently prepared atomic ensembles, thereby reversibly transferring information between light and matter with potentially high efficiency.

DOI
10.1364/opn.13.5.000050

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Opaque media can be made transparent by use of quantum mechanical interference, enabling fascinating phenomena with potential applications in both classical and quantum information processing. In particular, recent laboratory demonstrations have shown that light pulses can be slowed down and effectively brought to a standstill in coherently prepared atomic ensembles, thereby reversibly transferring information between light and matter with potentially high efficiency.
Coherent interactions of laser light with atomic ensembles allow one to modify dispersive properties of a medium and lead to new optical phenomena. Studies of the controlled light propagation and storing in such media have recently become a dynamically developing field of research motivated both by the fundamental character of the processes and by potential applications. This article briefly reviews basic theoretical approach to the dynamics of the propagation of laser pulses in optically modified media. The method and the physical processes are discussed that allow one to slow down the group velocity of laser pulse to zero (stopping of light), to transfer the state of a light pulse to atomic coherences and to restore the pulse. The interpretation of these phenomena in the formalism of dark-state polaritons is presented. Examples of possible coherent manipulations on a stored light are also discussed.
This cotutelle PhD thesis revolves around quantum optics experiments which involve large atomic ensembles. The study of light-matter interaction and its enhancement are crucial steps in the development and progress of quantum information generation, storage and processing protocols. The work presented here focuses on the evolution of large atomic ensemble preparation techniques, on the development and experimental investigation of stopped and stationary light protocols. Laser-cooled atomic ensembles in both experimental realisations have been brought to optical depths of a few hundreds, at temperatures of tens of microkelvin. Moreover, addressing these ensembles in symmetric configurations has enabled the study of protocols based on the temporal reversal of the mapping of light to collective atomic excitations. These enhancements have led to the storage of qubits based on electromagnetically-induced transparency, and the optical storage in a backward-retrieval Raman scheme, both demonstrating efficiency records, above 50%. This work has also led to the experimental investigation of stationary light and new protocols based on it.