Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review Letters

Electromagnetically Induced Magnetochiral Anisotropy in a Resonant Medium

Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, H. Chen, Paul S. Hsu, G. S. Agarwal, Marlan O. Scully

Published Jun 14, 2005• 58 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Chirality has been extensively studied for well over a century, and its potential applications range from optics to chemistry, medicine, and biology. Ingenious experiments have been designed to measure this naturally small effect. Here we discuss the possibility of producing a medium having a large chiral effect by using the ideas of coherent control. The coherent fields resonant with appropriate transitions in atomic or molecular systems can be used to manipulate the optical properties of a medium. We demonstrate experimentally very large magnetochiral anisotropy by using electromagnetic fields in atomic Rb vapors.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.94.233601

Related papers

Electromagnetically induced magnetochiral anisotropy in resonant medium

Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, H. Chen +3 more

Electromagnetically induced coherence can significantly increase optical response of atomic or molecular system. We demonstrate very large magneto-chiral anisotropy by applying resonant optical fields to atomic rubidium vapor.

Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference•Dec 10, 2005•5 citations

Laser-induced breakdown of the magnetic-field-reversal symmetry in the propagation of unpolarized light

G. S. Agarwal, Shubhrangshu Dasgupta

We show how a medium, under the influence of a coherent control field that is resonant or close to resonance to an appropriate atomic transition, can lead to very strong asymmetries in the propagation of unpolarized light when the direction of the magnetic field is reversed. We show how electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) can be used in atomic vapor to mimic this magnetochiral effect that occurs in natural systems. EIT can produce much larger asymmetry than the well-known magnetochiral effect as we use the dipole-allowed transitions here. Using density-matrix calculations we present results for the breakdown of the magnetic-field-reversal symmetry for two different atomic configurations.

arXiv:quant-ph/0206073•Physical Review A•Feb 28, 2003•18 citations

All-optically tunable electromagnetic chirality transfer

Enze Li, Ming‐Xin Dong, Dong-Sheng Ding +3 more

Detecting and controlling the chirality of matter play an essential role in exploring nature, providing previously unexplored avenues for matter discrimination and quantum manipulation. In such tasks, chiral probes are essential in defining or enhancing the chiral dichroism response. However, overlooking their influence on the symmetry of the medium hampers the ability to deterministically induce electromagnetic chirality. Here, we propose a simple yet versatile all-optical chirality transfer method to generate and manipulate the electromagnetic chirality of a neutral atomic medium. By inducing chirality-dependent dispersion in the atomic system, our method enables deterministic and tunable control of chirality transfer via a helical field. We theoretically analyze the mechanism of this optically induced symmetry breaking and experimentally demonstrate the helicity-dependent response of the medium. Our results show that the induced chirality can be effectively suppressed or enhanced, enabling deterministic electromagnetic enantioselection. This approach opens an efficient pathway for manipulating chiral symmetry breaking in light-matter interactions.

Science Advances•Apr 24, 2026•2 citations

Physics of electromagnetically induced chirality and anti-symmetric wave transmission

Rafi Ud Din, Xiaodong Zeng, Guo-Qin Ge +1 more

Chiral materials possess some unusual properties which make them interesting for useful applications in nanophotonics. In this work, we review the basic techniques used to achieve electromagnetically induced chirality in initially isotropic materials and mention some of their novel operations. Next, we investigate the transmission characteristics of two different multi-level atomic models in which chirality is introduced by magnetoelectric cross coupling of external electromagnetic fields with atomic transitions, leading to quantum coherence. The left-(lcp) and right-circularly polarized (rcp) beams, the two eigenmodes of a chiral medium, are shown to transmit in an anti-symmetric manner with respect to the probe field detuning and control field magnitude variations. This selective transmission of a particular mode at specific detunings may find applications in optical isolation and storage. We further demonstrate that the driving control fields and their effective phase can be used as tuning knobs to manipulate the medium's birefringence and the transmission of the eigenmodes.

Journal of Modern Optics•Aug 25, 2019•5 citations

Electromagnetically induced transparency: Optics in coherent media

Michael Fleischhauer, Ataç İmamoğlu, J. P. Marangos

Coherent preparation by laser light of quantum states of atoms and molecules can lead to quantum interference in the amplitudes of optical transitions. In this way the optical properties of a medium can be dramatically modified, leading to electromagnetically induced transparency and related effects, which have placed gas-phase systems at the center of recent advances in the development of media with radically new optical properties. This article reviews these advances and the new possibilities they offer for nonlinear optics and quantum information science. As a basis for the theory of electromagnetically induced transparency the authors consider the atomic dynamics and the optical response of the medium to a continuous-wave laser. They then discuss pulse propagation and the adiabatic evolution of field-coupled states and show how coherently prepared media can be used to improve frequency conversion in nonlinear optical mixing experiments. The extension of these concepts to very weak optical fields in the few-photon limit is then examined. The review concludes with a discussion of future prospects and potential new applications.

Reviews of Modern Physics•Jul 12, 2005•5,187 citations

Coherent control of optical processes in a resonant medium

Christopher O’Brien

The resonant absorption, emission, and scattering of light are the fundamental optical processes that have been used both to probe matter and to manipulate light itself. In the last decade there has been essential progress in coherent control of both linear and nonlinear optical responses based on resonant excitation of atomic coherence in multilevel quantum systems. Some interesting and useful phenomena, resulting from coherent control of absorption and the group index, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, lasing without inversion, and ultra-slow group velocity of light have been widely studied. This work is focused on coherent control of refractive index and resonant fluorescence in multilevel medium. \n \nWe suggest two promising schemes for resonant enhancement of the refractive index with eliminated absorption and propose their implementation in transition element doped crystals with excited state absorption and in a cell of Rb atoms at natural abundance. We show how to use one of these schemes for spatial variation of the refractive index via its periodic resonant increase/decrease, remarkably keeping at the same time zero absorption/gain. It opens the way to production of transparent photonic structures (such as distributed Bragg reflectors, holey fibers, or photonic crystals) in a homogeneous resonant atomic media such as dielectrics with homogeneously distributed impurities, atomic, or molecular gases. These optically produced photonic structures could easily be controlled (including switching on/off, changing amplitude and period of modulation) and would be highly selective in frequency, naturally limited by the width of the optical resonance. \n \nWe also derive the optical fluorescence spectra of a three-level medium driven by two coherent fields at the adjacent transitions in a general case when all three transitions are allowed. We show that coherent driving can efficiently control the distribution of intensities between the fluorescent channels. In particular, the total intensity of fluorescence at the transition which is not driven by the optical fields may essentially exceed the fluorescence intensity at the driven transitions under the condition of two-photon resonance. This counter-intuitive effect is due to depletion of the intermediate state via atomic interference.

•Dec 1, 2011•0 citations
Chirality has been extensively studied for well over a century, and its potential applications range from optics to chemistry, medicine, and biology. Ingenious experiments have been designed to measure this naturally small effect. Here we discuss the possibility of producing a medium having a large chiral effect by using the ideas of coherent control. The coherent fields resonant with appropriate transitions in atomic or molecular systems can be used to manipulate the optical properties of a medium. We demonstrate experimentally very large magnetochiral anisotropy by using electromagnetic fields in atomic Rb vapors.
We show how a medium, under the influence of a coherent control field that is resonant or close to resonance to an appropriate atomic transition, can lead to very strong asymmetries in the propagation of unpolarized light when the direction of the magnetic field is reversed. We show how electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) can be used in atomic vapor to mimic this magnetochiral effect that occurs in natural systems. EIT can produce much larger asymmetry than the well-known magnetochiral effect as we use the dipole-allowed transitions here. Using density-matrix calculations we present results for the breakdown of the magnetic-field-reversal symmetry for two different atomic configurations.
Detecting and controlling the chirality of matter play an essential role in exploring nature, providing previously unexplored avenues for matter discrimination and quantum manipulation. In such tasks, chiral probes are essential in defining or enhancing the chiral dichroism response. However, overlooking their influence on the symmetry of the medium hampers the ability to deterministically induce electromagnetic chirality. Here, we propose a simple yet versatile all-optical chirality transfer method to generate and manipulate the electromagnetic chirality of a neutral atomic medium. By inducing chirality-dependent dispersion in the atomic system, our method enables deterministic and tunable control of chirality transfer via a helical field. We theoretically analyze the mechanism of this optically induced symmetry breaking and experimentally demonstrate the helicity-dependent response of the medium. Our results show that the induced chirality can be effectively suppressed or enhanced, enabling deterministic electromagnetic enantioselection. This approach opens an efficient pathway for manipulating chiral symmetry breaking in light-matter interactions.
Chiral materials possess some unusual properties which make them interesting for useful applications in nanophotonics. In this work, we review the basic techniques used to achieve electromagnetically induced chirality in initially isotropic materials and mention some of their novel operations. Next, we investigate the transmission characteristics of two different multi-level atomic models in which chirality is introduced by magnetoelectric cross coupling of external electromagnetic fields with atomic transitions, leading to quantum coherence. The left-(lcp) and right-circularly polarized (rcp) beams, the two eigenmodes of a chiral medium, are shown to transmit in an anti-symmetric manner with respect to the probe field detuning and control field magnitude variations. This selective transmission of a particular mode at specific detunings may find applications in optical isolation and storage. We further demonstrate that the driving control fields and their effective phase can be used as tuning knobs to manipulate the medium's birefringence and the transmission of the eigenmodes.
Coherent preparation by laser light of quantum states of atoms and molecules can lead to quantum interference in the amplitudes of optical transitions. In this way the optical properties of a medium can be dramatically modified, leading to electromagnetically induced transparency and related effects, which have placed gas-phase systems at the center of recent advances in the development of media with radically new optical properties. This article reviews these advances and the new possibilities they offer for nonlinear optics and quantum information science. As a basis for the theory of electromagnetically induced transparency the authors consider the atomic dynamics and the optical response of the medium to a continuous-wave laser. They then discuss pulse propagation and the adiabatic evolution of field-coupled states and show how coherently prepared media can be used to improve frequency conversion in nonlinear optical mixing experiments. The extension of these concepts to very weak optical fields in the few-photon limit is then examined. The review concludes with a discussion of future prospects and potential new applications.
The resonant absorption, emission, and scattering of light are the fundamental optical processes that have been used both to probe matter and to manipulate light itself. In the last decade there has been essential progress in coherent control of both linear and nonlinear optical responses based on resonant excitation of atomic coherence in multilevel quantum systems. Some interesting and useful phenomena, resulting from coherent control of absorption and the group index, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, lasing without inversion, and ultra-slow group velocity of light have been widely studied. This work is focused on coherent control of refractive index and resonant fluorescence in multilevel medium. \n \nWe suggest two promising schemes for resonant enhancement of the refractive index with eliminated absorption and propose their implementation in transition element doped crystals with excited state absorption and in a cell of Rb atoms at natural abundance. We show how to use one of these schemes for spatial variation of the refractive index via its periodic resonant increase/decrease, remarkably keeping at the same time zero absorption/gain. It opens the way to production of transparent photonic structures (such as distributed Bragg reflectors, holey fibers, or photonic crystals) in a homogeneous resonant atomic media such as dielectrics with homogeneously distributed impurities, atomic, or molecular gases. These optically produced photonic structures could easily be controlled (including switching on/off, changing amplitude and period of modulation) and would be highly selective in frequency, naturally limited by the width of the optical resonance. \n \nWe also derive the optical fluorescence spectra of a three-level medium driven by two coherent fields at the adjacent transitions in a general case when all three transitions are allowed. We show that coherent driving can efficiently control the distribution of intensities between the fluorescent channels. In particular, the total intensity of fluorescence at the transition which is not driven by the optical fields may essentially exceed the fluorescence intensity at the driven transitions under the condition of two-photon resonance. This counter-intuitive effect is due to depletion of the intermediate state via atomic interference.