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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Quantum control of light using electromagnetically induced transparency

Axel André, Matthew D. Eisaman, Ronald Lee Walsworth, Alexander S. Zibrov, Mikhail D. Lukin

Published Apr 25, 2005• 51 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present an overview of recent theoretical and experimental work on the control of the propagation and quantum properties of light using electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic ensembles. Specifically, we discuss techniques for the generation and storage of few-photon quantum-mechanical states of light as well as novel approaches to manipulate weak pulses of light via enhanced nonlinear optical processes.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/38/9/010

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We present an overview of recent theoretical and experimental work on the control of the propagation and quantum properties of light using electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic ensembles. Specifically, we discuss techniques for the generation and storage of few-photon quantum-mechanical states of light as well as novel approaches to manipulate weak pulses of light via enhanced nonlinear optical processes.
Coupling light to ensembles of strongly interacting particles has emerged as a promising route toward achieving few photon nonlinearities. One specific way to implement this kind of nonlinearity is to interface light with highly excited atomic Rydberg states by means of electromagnetically induced transparency, an approach which allows freely propagating photons to acquire synthetic interactions of hitherto unprecedented strength. Here, we present an overview of this rapidly developing field, from classical effects to quantum manifestations of the nonlocal nonlinearities emerging in such systems. With an emphasis on underlying theoretical concepts, we describe the many experimental breakthroughs so far demonstrated and discuss potential applications looming on the horizon.
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.
Most phenomena around us can be explained by classical optics since photons interact weakly with atoms. When the interaction is strong enough where one photon affects the properties of other photons, we go to the regime of quantum photon-photon nonlinear optics. The work in this thesis explores this regime of physics. This paves the path to exploring strongly interacting many-body physics with photons which is still a largely unexplored domain. The ability to control strongly interacting photons is also of central importance in quantum science and engineering. We use the approach of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) in atomic ensembles to create strong interactions and demonstrate coherent control between single photons. Using EIT, we coherently map single photons onto the atoms which travel as coupled excitations of light and matter called dark-state polaritons. When the medium is optically dense, the polariton propagates as a massive particle with a velocity that is much smaller than the speed of light. These polaritons interact with each other via their atomic component. In this thesis, we show robust symmetry-protected collisions between photons that imprint a large phase of π/2 with little loss and extend the nature of photon-photon interactions to the repulsive regime, which are essential for quantum communication and metrology. We use the technique of photon blockade to make a fast optical detector of Rydberg states, directly demonstrating the use of quantum nonlinear optics for quantum computation. We also study the extensions of the attractive and repulsive photons for three particles shedding light into the formation of bound states and crystals of photons and paving the way to studying many-body physics of photons.
Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) techniques are important tools for the storage of the quantum states of light fields in atomic ensembles and for enhancement of the interaction between photons. In this paper, we briefly summarize the recent experimental studies conducted by our group on enhanced cross-phase modulation based on double EIT effects, the quantum interference of stored dual-channel spin-wave excitations and the coherent manipulation of the spin wave vector for the polarization of photons in a single tripod atomic system. The work presented here has potential application in the developing field of quantum information processing.
Engineered strong photon-photon interactions would enable a broad range of applications in quantum information processing. We demonstrate, using an ensemble of atoms strongly coupled to an optical cavity, that light transmission through an opaque medium may be controlled with a few photons and even with the electromagnetic vacuum field. The vacuum field induces 40% transmission, accompanied by a group delay of 25 ns, which corresponds to the light pulse propagating at 1600 m/s through the medium. The transmission increases to 80% when ~10 photons are injected into the cavity. The strong optical nonlinearity at a few-photon level observed in this system opens prospects for advanced quantum devices such as photon-number-state filters.
Summary form only given. Exciting observations of ultra-slow group velocities and very large nonlinearities in coherently driven atomic media open up interesting prospectives for nonlinear optical processes at low light levels. Recent experiments, for instance, demonstrated that very efficient nonlinear phenomena can be induced by laser fields of tiny energies. These developments stimulate the studies of ultimate efficiency limits for nonlinear optics based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as well as its possible applications for generation and manipulation of quantum entangled states of the light fields and matter. We describe a particular method that allows for two slow light fields of energies corresponding to that of a single photon to interact coherently.