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Physical Review A

Transients of the electromagnetically-induced-transparency-enhanced refractive Kerr nonlinearity: Theory

Michael Vern Pack, Ryan M. Camacho, John C. Howell

Published Jul 25, 2006• 38 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a theory describing the transients and rise times of the refractive Kerr nonlinearity which is enhanced using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We restrict our analysis to the case of a pulsed signal field with continuous-wave EIT fields, and all fields are well below saturation. These restrictions enable the reduction of an EIT Kerr, four-level, density-matrix equation to a two-level Bloch-vector equation which has a simple and physically intuitive algebraic solution. The physically intuitive picture of a two-level Bloch vector provides insights that are easily generalized to more complex and experimentally realistic models. We consider generalization to the cases of Doppler broadening, many-level EIT systems (we consider the $D1$ line of $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$), and optically thick media. For the case of optically thick media we find that the rise time of the refractive EIT Kerr effect is proportional to the optical thickness. The rise time of the refractive EIT Kerr effect sets important limitations for potential few-photon applications.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.74.013812

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We found the analytical expression for cross-Kerr nonlinear coefficient in a four-level Y-type atomic system. The analytical model is applied to 85Rb atoms and shown that under electromagnetically induced transparency, cross-Kerr nonlinear coefficient is enhanced by several orders of magnitude. At the same time, the amplitude and the sign of cross-Kerr nonlinear coefficient are controlled with respect to the intensity and the frequency of the coupling laser field. The analytical model can be useful to explain the experimental results and to study related effects in nonlinear optics. Full Text: PDF ReferencesC. Ottaviani, D. Vitali, M. Artoni, F. Cataliotti, P. Tombesi, "Polarization Qubit Phase Gate in Driven Atomic Media", Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 197902 (2003). CrossRef C. Zhu, G. Huang, "Giant Kerr Nonlinearity, Controlled Entangled Photons and Polarization Phase Gates in Coupled Quantum-Well Structures", Opt. Express 19, 23364 (2011). CrossRef C. Hang, G. Huang, "Giant Kerr nonlinearity and weak-light superluminal optical solitons in a four-state atomic system with gain doublet", Opt. Express 18(3), 2952 (2010). CrossRef M. Fleischhauer, I. Mamoglu, and J. P. Marangos, "Electromagnetically induced transparency: Optics in coherent media", Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 633 (2005). CrossRef H. Schmidt, And A. Imamogdlu, "Giant Kerr nonlinearities obtained by electromagnetically induced transparency", Opt. Lett., 21(23), 1936 (1996). CrossRef H. Kang And Y. Zhu, Phys. "Observation of Large Kerr Nonlinearity at Low Light Intensities", Rev. Lett., 91, 093601 (2003). CrossRef J. Kou, R. G. Wan, Z. H. Kang, H. H. Wang, L. Jiang, X. J. Zhang, Y. Jiang, and J. Y. Gao, "EIT-assisted large cross-Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level inverted-Y atomic system", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 27(10), 2035 (2010). CrossRef X. Yang, S. Li, C. Zhang, and H. Wang, "Enhanced cross-Kerr nonlinearity via electromagnetically induced transparency in a four-level tripod atomic system", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 26(7), 1423 (2009). CrossRef C. Ottaviani, D. Vitali, M. Artoni, F. Cataliotti and P. Tombesi, "Polarization Qubit Phase Gate in Driven Atomic Media", Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 197902 (2003). CrossRef H. Sun, Y. Niu, S. Jin and S. Gong, "Phase control of cross-phase modulation with electromagnetically induced transparency", J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 40, 3037 (2007). CrossRef L.V. Doai, P.V. Trong, D.X. Khoa, and N.H. Bang, "Electromagnetically induced transparency in five-level cascade scheme of 85Rb atoms: An analytical approach", Optik, 125, 3666 (2014). CrossRef D. X. Khoa, P. V. Trong, L. V. Doai and N. H. Bang, "Electromagnetically induced transparency in a five-level cascade system under Doppler broadening: an analytical approach", Phys, Scr. 91, 035401 (2016). CrossRef D.X. Khoa, L.C. Trung, P.V. Thuan, L.V. Doai and N.H. Bang, "Measurement of dispersive profile of a multiwindow electromagnetically induced transparency spectrum in a Doppler-broadened atomic medium", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 34 (6), 1255 (2017). CrossRef D. X. Khoa, L. V. Doai, D. H. Son, and N. H. Bang, "Enhancement of self-Kerr nonlinearity via electromagnetically induced transparency in a five-level cascade system: an analytical approach", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B., 31, 1330 (2014). CrossRef L.V. Doai, N.L.T. An, D.X. Khoa, V.N. Sau and N.H. Bang, "Manipulating giant cross-Kerr nonlinearity at multiple frequencies in an atomic gaseous medium", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 36, 2856 (2019). CrossRef D. X. Khoa, L. V. Doai, L. N. M. Anh, L. C. Trung, P. V. Thuan, N. T. Dung, and N. H. Bang, "Optical bistability in a five-level cascade EIT medium: an analytical approach", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, Vol. 33, 735 (2016). CrossRef N. T. Anh, L. V. Doai, and N. H. Bang, "Manipulating multi-frequency light in a five-level cascade-type atomic medium associated with giant self-Kerr nonlinearity", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 35, 1233 (2018). CrossRef N. T. Anh, L. V. Doai, D. H. Son, and N. H. Bang, "Manipulating multi-frequency light in a five-level cascade EIT medium under Doppler broadening", Optik 171, 721 (2018). CrossRef D.A. Steck, Rb85 D Line Data: http://Steck.Us/Alkalidata/rubidium85numbers.pdf CrossRef

Photonics Letters of Poland•Sep 30, 2021•1 citation
We present a theory describing the transients and rise times of the refractive Kerr nonlinearity which is enhanced using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We restrict our analysis to the case of a pulsed signal field with continuous-wave EIT fields, and all fields are well below saturation. These restrictions enable the reduction of an EIT Kerr, four-level, density-matrix equation to a two-level Bloch-vector equation which has a simple and physically intuitive algebraic solution. The physically intuitive picture of a two-level Bloch vector provides insights that are easily generalized to more complex and experimentally realistic models. We consider generalization to the cases of Doppler broadening, many-level EIT systems (we consider the D1D1D1 line of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb), and optically thick media. For the case of optically thick media we find that the rise time of the refractive EIT Kerr effect is proportional to the optical thickness. The rise time of the refractive EIT Kerr effect sets important limitations for potential few-photon applications.
This thesis presents theoretical derivations and experimental demonstrations of Kerr optical nonlinearities and their dynamics. The Kerr nonlinearity studied is based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), and is known for having an unusually large cross-phase modulation (XPM) [1]. Also, quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements of photon number using the EIT Kerr nonlinearity are discussed. We first discuss the EIT line shapes in hot atomic vapors both with and without buffer gasses, and for the specific case of EIT line shapes on the D1 line of rubidium. Using a Bloch-vector formalism to describe EIT, we derive new expressions describing the dynamical evolution of the EIT Kerr nonlinearity and the rise-time of the EIT Kerr effect. The theory of the EIT Kerr dynamics is confirmed by experiments using hot rubidium vapor in a buffer gas. These experimental observations confirm that the rise-time of the EIT Kerr effect is linearly proportional to the optical thickness of the EIT medium and inversely proportional to the width of the EIT transparency resonance.
We report observations of the dynamics of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system when the ground states are Stark shifted. Interactions of this type exhibit large optical nonlinearities called Kerr nonlinearities, and have numerous applications. The EIT Kerr nonlinearity is relatively slow, which is a limiting factor that may make many potential applications impossible. Using rubidium atoms, we observe the dynamics of the EIT Kerr nonlinearity using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to measure phase modulation of the EIT fields resulting from a pulsed signal beam Stark shifting the ground state energy levels. The rise times and transients agree well with theory.
The paper is aimed at modeling the enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in a five-level double-ladder-type atomic system based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) by using the semi-classical density matrix method. We present an analytical model to explain the origin of Kerr nonlinearity enhancement. The scheme also results in a several orders of magnitude increase in the Kerr nonlinearity in comparison with the well-known four- and three-level atomic systems. In addition to the steady-state case, the time-dependent Kerr nonlinearity and the switching feature of EIT-based colossal Kerr nonlinearity is investigated for the proposed system.
We found the analytical expression for cross-Kerr nonlinear coefficient in a four-level Y-type atomic system. The analytical model is applied to 85Rb atoms and shown that under electromagnetically induced transparency, cross-Kerr nonlinear coefficient is enhanced by several orders of magnitude. At the same time, the amplitude and the sign of cross-Kerr nonlinear coefficient are controlled with respect to the intensity and the frequency of the coupling laser field. The analytical model can be useful to explain the experimental results and to study related effects in nonlinear optics. Full Text: PDF ReferencesC. Ottaviani, D. Vitali, M. Artoni, F. Cataliotti, P. Tombesi, "Polarization Qubit Phase Gate in Driven Atomic Media", Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 197902 (2003). CrossRef C. Zhu, G. Huang, "Giant Kerr Nonlinearity, Controlled Entangled Photons and Polarization Phase Gates in Coupled Quantum-Well Structures", Opt. Express 19, 23364 (2011). CrossRef C. Hang, G. Huang, "Giant Kerr nonlinearity and weak-light superluminal optical solitons in a four-state atomic system with gain doublet", Opt. Express 18(3), 2952 (2010). CrossRef M. Fleischhauer, I. Mamoglu, and J. P. Marangos, "Electromagnetically induced transparency: Optics in coherent media", Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 633 (2005). CrossRef H. Schmidt, And A. Imamogdlu, "Giant Kerr nonlinearities obtained by electromagnetically induced transparency", Opt. Lett., 21(23), 1936 (1996). CrossRef H. Kang And Y. Zhu, Phys. "Observation of Large Kerr Nonlinearity at Low Light Intensities", Rev. Lett., 91, 093601 (2003). CrossRef J. Kou, R. G. Wan, Z. H. Kang, H. H. Wang, L. Jiang, X. J. Zhang, Y. Jiang, and J. Y. Gao, "EIT-assisted large cross-Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level inverted-Y atomic system", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 27(10), 2035 (2010). CrossRef X. Yang, S. Li, C. Zhang, and H. Wang, "Enhanced cross-Kerr nonlinearity via electromagnetically induced transparency in a four-level tripod atomic system", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 26(7), 1423 (2009). CrossRef C. Ottaviani, D. Vitali, M. Artoni, F. Cataliotti and P. Tombesi, "Polarization Qubit Phase Gate in Driven Atomic Media", Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 197902 (2003). CrossRef H. Sun, Y. Niu, S. Jin and S. Gong, "Phase control of cross-phase modulation with electromagnetically induced transparency", J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 40, 3037 (2007). CrossRef L.V. Doai, P.V. Trong, D.X. Khoa, and N.H. Bang, "Electromagnetically induced transparency in five-level cascade scheme of 85Rb atoms: An analytical approach", Optik, 125, 3666 (2014). CrossRef D. X. Khoa, P. V. Trong, L. V. Doai and N. H. Bang, "Electromagnetically induced transparency in a five-level cascade system under Doppler broadening: an analytical approach", Phys, Scr. 91, 035401 (2016). CrossRef D.X. Khoa, L.C. Trung, P.V. Thuan, L.V. Doai and N.H. Bang, "Measurement of dispersive profile of a multiwindow electromagnetically induced transparency spectrum in a Doppler-broadened atomic medium", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 34 (6), 1255 (2017). CrossRef D. X. Khoa, L. V. Doai, D. H. Son, and N. H. Bang, "Enhancement of self-Kerr nonlinearity via electromagnetically induced transparency in a five-level cascade system: an analytical approach", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B., 31, 1330 (2014). CrossRef L.V. Doai, N.L.T. An, D.X. Khoa, V.N. Sau and N.H. Bang, "Manipulating giant cross-Kerr nonlinearity at multiple frequencies in an atomic gaseous medium", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 36, 2856 (2019). CrossRef D. X. Khoa, L. V. Doai, L. N. M. Anh, L. C. Trung, P. V. Thuan, N. T. Dung, and N. H. Bang, "Optical bistability in a five-level cascade EIT medium: an analytical approach", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, Vol. 33, 735 (2016). CrossRef N. T. Anh, L. V. Doai, and N. H. Bang, "Manipulating multi-frequency light in a five-level cascade-type atomic medium associated with giant self-Kerr nonlinearity", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 35, 1233 (2018). CrossRef N. T. Anh, L. V. Doai, D. H. Son, and N. H. Bang, "Manipulating multi-frequency light in a five-level cascade EIT medium under Doppler broadening", Optik 171, 721 (2018). CrossRef D.A. Steck, Rb85 D Line Data: http://Steck.Us/Alkalidata/rubidium85numbers.pdf CrossRef