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Physical Review A

Experimental study of photon-echo size in optically thick media

Tong Wang, Christoph M. Greiner, Jason R. Bochinski, THOMAS W. MOSSBERG

Published Aug 1, 1999• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have studied the effect of generative-pulse amplitude, spatial profile, and temporal character as well as medium optical thickness on the power of photon and stimulated echoes. Working in atomic Yb vapor, photon echoes are observed that, absent material relaxation, are more powerful than the first generative pulse, thereby exceeding typically expected photon-echo powers by approximately two orders of magnitude. Factors crucial to the generation of powerful echoes identified through Maxwell-Bloch simulation are experimentally confirmed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.60.r757

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Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences Physics•May 1, 2008•0 citations
We have studied the effect of generative-pulse amplitude, spatial profile, and temporal character as well as medium optical thickness on the power of photon and stimulated echoes. Working in atomic Yb vapor, photon echoes are observed that, absent material relaxation, are more powerful than the first generative pulse, thereby exceeding typically expected photon-echo powers by approximately two orders of magnitude. Factors crucial to the generation of powerful echoes identified through Maxwell-Bloch simulation are experimentally confirmed.
We present the results of analytical and numerical calculations of the amplitude and temporal shape of photon echoes produced in optically thick absorbing media. In particular, we are interested in echo output signals that mimic the temporal shape of one of the input pulses (the data pulse). Echo recall efficiencies of temporally structured data pulses exceeding unity can be obtained in optically thick media while preserving the information content of the data pulse. We find that the relationship between the maximum echo efficiency and the Beer's length at which that maximum is attained is nearly linear. This linear relation holds well beyond the optimal absorption length predicted by linear theory for both two-pulse photon echoes and three-pulse stimulated photon echoes. These results have significance in the development of optical coherent transient memory and processing systems, where previous calculations predicted recall efficiencies of only a few percent.
Highly efficient two-pulse and stimulated photon echoes are experimentally demonstrated in an absorbing medium. Recall efficiencies of 235% and 150% with excellent signal contrast are measured for two-pulse and stimulated photon echoes, respectively, in a Tm:YAG crystal with an absorption length of 3.8. The reported efficiencies do not include any correction for decay or beam profile. We believe that this is the first demonstration of an uncorrected echo efficiency greater than 100% with good signal fidelity in an optically thick medium.
Important applications in optical information storage and processing based on photon echo have been developed.An accurate and effective numerical method to solve the Maxwell-Bloch equations that are used to describe the optical pulse propagation and interaction with inhomogeneously broadened two-level medium will be introduced.Two-pulse photon echo is calculated then photon echo and multiple-pulse photon echoes are stimulated in optical thin(thick) media by using the method,and the physical properties of those echoes are analyzed.The results show that the approach to storage and retrieval of light using multiple-pulse photon echoes based on stimulated photon echo is an effective mode.
In this paper we investigate the influence of optical density or superradiance on the photon echo decay using the coupled Maxwell–Bloch equations. Our theory applies to optically thick but dilute media, where the transition dipole–dipole interaction between nearby chromophores is negligible, but the far-field interaction is not. Corrections to the (normalized) echo decay in the optically thin limit, INe(tπ)=exp [−4tπ/T2] (tπ and T2 are the interpulse separation times and the coherence relaxation times, respectively), are found by expanding the polarization, excited state population and pulse electric fields in powers of ζ=αz, where α is the inverse Beer’s absorption length, and z is the coordinate along the pulse propagation axis. Numerical solutions for optically thick samples are also presented, and when ζ≫1 the normalized echo intensity is found to obey the simple analytic form: INe(tπ)=2 exp [−tπ/T1]−1, when tπ/T1<ln 2 and INe(tπ)=0 for longer times. (T1 is the population relaxation time.) In this limit the echo decay is independent of the coherence relaxation time T2, illustrating the profound effect intermolecular coupling may have on any nonlinear optical measurement. We show that at low temperatures, when T2=2T1, the echo decay rate increases as the optical density increases. However, for higher temperatures, when T2 is sufficiently shorter than 2T1, the opposite behavior results, that is, the echo decay rate decreases as the optical density increases.
We derive a method for predicting the efficiency of stimulated photon echoes in optically thick media. Analytic solutions to the Maxwell–Bloch equations are derived for multiple pulse sequences in which the pulses are either temporally brief or have a low pulse area. This method retains the temporal and spatial information of the recalled waveform, and it provides a nonintensive computational method for determining the recall efficiency of stimulated photon echoes. The case considered is when the medium is optically thick and the recall efficiency is high, but with minimal distortion of the data. The results are in good agreement with a full space, time, and frequency numerical integration of the Maxwell–Bloch equations.