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Optics Letters

All-optical switching at ultralow light levels

Jiepeng Zhang, Gessler Hernandez, Yifu Zhu

Published Apr 17, 2007• 76 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report an experimental demonstration of all-optical switching at ultralow light levels in coherently prepared Rb atoms. A signal light pulse is switched on and off by a control light pulse at different frequencies in a four-level atomic system based on multiphoton interferences. We observed a switching efficiency of 55% with the signal and control light pulses containing approximately 20 photons each, corresponding to a control energy density of approximately 10(-5) photons per atomic cross section lambda(2)/(2pi).

DOI
10.1364/ol.32.001317

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