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Physical Review Letters

Slow Light Beam Splitter

Yanhong Xiao, Mason Klein, Michael Hohensee, Liang Jiang, David F. Phillips, Mikhail D. Lukin, Ronald Lee Walsworth

Published Jul 25, 2008• 65 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a slow light beam splitter using rapid coherence transport in a wall-coated atomic vapor cell. We show that particles undergoing random and undirected classical motion can mediate coherent interactions between two or more optical modes. Coherence, written into atoms via electromagnetically induced transparency using an input optical signal at one transverse position, spreads out via ballistic atomic motion, is preserved by an antirelaxation wall coating, and is then retrieved in outgoing slow light signals in both the input channel and a spatially-separated second channel. The splitting ratio between the two output channels can be tuned by adjusting the laser power. The slow light beam splitter may improve quantum repeater performance and be useful as an all-optical dynamically reconfigurable router.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.101.043601

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We demonstrate a slow light beam splitter using rapid coherence transport in a wall-coated atomic vapor cell. We show that particles undergoing random and undirected classical motion can mediate coherent interactions between two or more optical modes. Coherence, written into atoms via electromagnetically induced transparency using an input optical signal at one transverse position, spreads out via ballistic atomic motion, is preserved by an antirelaxation wall coating, and is then retrieved in outgoing slow light signals in both the input channel and a spatially-separated second channel. The splitting ratio between the two output channels can be tuned by adjusting the laser power. The slow light beam splitter may improve quantum repeater performance and be useful as an all-optical dynamically reconfigurable router.
Using atomic motion to coherently spread light information stored in atoms provides a means to manipulate atom-light interactions. We demonstrate light splitting with moving atoms in a paraffin-coated vapor cell by using phase-sensitive degenerate four-wave mixing, or self-rotation. This scheme amplifies the slow light beam splitter signal, and, in the meantime, maintains the phase coherence between the beam-splitter channels. Light storage efficiency in the beam-splitting channel can also be enhanced. Furthermore, we demonstrate an optical memory exceeding 1 s, taking advantage of the gain from self-rotation and an atomic coherence composed of a fast-decaying part and a slow-decaying part. These results should find applications in optical memory, optical routers, and atomic coherence control.
Using atomic motion to coherently spread light information stored in atoms provides a novel means to manipulate atom-light interactions. We demonstrate light splitting with moving atoms in a paraffin coated vapor cell, by using phase sensitive degenerate four wave mixing, or self-rotation. This scheme amplifies the beam splitter signal, and in the meantime maintains the phase coherence between the beam splitter channels. Light storage efficiency in the beam-splitting channel can be also enhanced. Such an amplified beam splitter should have applications in optical memory, optical routers and atomic coherence control.
We demonstrate a coherent and dynamic beam splitter based on light storage in cold atoms. An input weak laser pulse is first stored in a cold atom ensemble via electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). A set of counter-propagating control fields, applied at a later time, retrieves the stored pulse into two output spatial modes. The high visibility interference between the two output pulses clearly demonstrates that the beam splitting process is coherent. Furthermore, by manipulating the control lasers, it is possible to dynamically control the storage time, the power splitting ratio, the relative phase, and the optical frequencies of the output pulses. With further improvements, the active beam splitter demonstrated in this work might have applications in photonic photonic quantum information and in all-optical information processing.
We propose a scheme to realize slow-light soliton beam splitters by using a tripod-type four-level atomic system. We show that optical solitons, which have ultraslow propagation velocity and ultralow generation power, can be generated in the system via electromagnetically induced transparency and can be stored and retrieved with high efficiency and fidelity. In particular, a nonlinear beam splitter that splits one optical soliton into two or more ones can be obtained by switching on and off of two or more control laser fields subsequently. The results reported here open a route not only for active manipulation of nonlinear optical pulses in multistate quantum systems but also for promising applications in optical information processing and transmission.
Spatially splitting nonclassical light beams is in principle prohibited due to noise contamination during beam splitting. We propose a platform based on thermal motion of atoms to realize spatial multiplexing of squeezed light. Light channels of separate spatial modes in an antirelaxation coated vapor cell share the same long-lived atomic coherence jointly created by all channels through the coherent diffusion of atoms, which in turn enhances the individual channel's nonlinear process responsible for light squeezing. Consequently, it behaves as squeezed light in one optical channel transferring to other distant channels even with laser powers below the threshold for squeezed light generation. An array of squeezed light beams is created with low laser power ∼ milliwatt. This approach holds great promise for applications in a multinode quantum network and quantum enhanced technologies such as quantum imaging and sensing.