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Laser Physics

Slow Light in a Collection of Collisionally Broadened Two-Level Atoms

R. W. Bovd, Nikolay N. Lepeshkin, Petros Zerom

Published Jan 1, 2005• 4 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The two-level atom can, for good reason, be considered the basic material structure for the study of quantum optics [1]. The two-level atom has played a fundamental role in studies of physical processes, including self-induced transparency (SIT), photon echoes, optical nutation, saturation spectroscopy, and, most recently, slow- and fast-light research. This latter field has recently been the subject of great activity, as researchers have learned how to utilize various physical processes to exert control over the velocity of propagation of light pulses through material systems [2]. This interest stems both from the intellectual intrigue in situations in which the velocity of light can be speeded up or slowed down by many orders of magnitude and the promise that such techniques might be useful for applications in fields such as telecommunications and optical computing [3‐6]. Most of the recent work in this field has made use of the process of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to induce a narrow transparency region in an otherwise highly absorbing optical material [7, 8]. The rapid variation of the refractive index n associated with this transparency window then leads to a strong modification of the group velocity n g in accordance with the standard relation

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The two-level atom can, for good reason, be considered the basic material structure for the study of quantum optics [1]. The two-level atom has played a fundamental role in studies of physical processes, including self-induced transparency (SIT), photon echoes, optical nutation, saturation spectroscopy, and, most recently, slow- and fast-light research. This latter field has recently been the subject of great activity, as researchers have learned how to utilize various physical processes to exert control over the velocity of propagation of light pulses through material systems [2]. This interest stems both from the intellectual intrigue in situations in which the velocity of light can be speeded up or slowed down by many orders of magnitude and the promise that such techniques might be useful for applications in fields such as telecommunications and optical computing [3‐6]. Most of the recent work in this field has made use of the process of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to induce a narrow transparency region in an otherwise highly absorbing optical material [7, 8]. The rapid variation of the refractive index n associated with this transparency window then leads to a strong modification of the group velocity n g in accordance with the standard relation
As evidenced by this book, there has been a flurry of activity over the last decade on tailoring the dispersive properties of optical materials [1]. What has captured the attention of the research community were some of the early results on creating spectral regions of large normal dispersion [2-4]. Large normal dispersion results in extremely small group velocities, where the group velocity is the approximate speed at which a pulse of light propagates through a material. We denote the group velocity by υg = c/ng, where c is the speed of light in vacuum and ng is known as the group index. In the early experiments, described in greater detail in Chapter 1, a dilute gas of atoms is illuminated by a control or coupling beamwhose frequency is tuned precisely to an optical transition of an atom. This control field modifies the absorption and dispersion properties of another atomic transition that shares a common energy level. A narrow transparencywindow is created on this second transition-a process known as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)—and within this window, υg takes on extremely small values. Many experiments have now observed υg ∼ 1 m/s or less, implying ng > 108. This result is remarkable, considering the fact that the refractive index n of a material rarely exceeds 3 in the visible part of the spectrum.What are the implications of such large group indices? What applications are enabled by this basic science discovery?
Research into slow light began theoretically in 1880 with the paper [1] of H A Lorentz, who is best known for his work on relativity and the speed of light. Experimental work started some 60 years later with the work of S L McCall and E L Hahn [2] who explored non-linear self-induced transparency in ruby. This field of research has burgeoned in the last 10 years, starting with the work of L Vestergaard Hau and coworkers on slow light via electromagnetically induced transparency in a Bose–Einstein condensate [3]. Many groups are now able to slow light down to a few metres per second or even stop the motion of light entirely [4]. Today, slow light – or more often `slow and fast light' – has become its own vibrant field with a strongly increasing number of publications. In broad scope, slow light research can be categorized in terms of the sort of physical mechanism used to slow down the light. One sort of slow light makes use of material dispersion. This dispersion can be the natural dispersion of the ordinary refractive index or can be the frequency dependence of some nonlinear optical process, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, coherent population oscillations, stimulated light scattering, or four-wave mixing processes. The second sort of slow light makes use of the wavelength dependence of artificially structured materials, such as photonic crystals, optical waveguides, and collections of microresonators. Material systems in which slow light has been observed include metal vapours, rare-earth-doped materials, Raman and Brillioun gain media, photonic crystals, microresonators and, more recently, metamaterials. A common feature of all of these schemes is the presence of a sharp single resonance or multiple resonances produced by an atomic transition, a resonance in a photonic structure, or in a nonlinear optical process. Current applications of slow light include a series of attractive topics in optical information processing, such as optical data storage, optical memories, quantum information devices, and optical communication systems in which the use of slow light will allow all-optical processing with less wasted heat. To implement these applications, devices such as buffers, memories, interferometers and switches that utilize slow light need to be developed. Future challenges include the need for improved coupling of light into slow light modes, overcoming propagation losses, and mitigating the influence of large dispersion of the group velocity. The collection of papers in this special issue of Journal of Optics features a broad spectrum of articles that highlight actual developments in many of the material types and schemes described above. It represents therefore an excellent up to date snapshot of the current state of the field of slow light research. References [1] Lorentz H A 1880 Uber die Beziehung zwischen der Fortpflanzung des Lichtes und der Körperdichte Wiedemann Ann. 9 641–64 [2] McCall S L and Hahn E L 1967 Self-induced transparency by pulsed coherent light Phys. Rev. Lett. 18 908–11 [3] Vestergaard Hau L, Harris S E, Dutton Z and Behroozi C H 1999 Nature 397 594 [4] Philips D F, Fleischhauer A, Mair A, Walsworth R L and Lukin M D 2001 Storage of light in atomic vapor Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 783–6
An overview of recent research aimed at controlling the propagation velocity of light pulses through material systems is presented. Most of the research involves two basic approaches. One approach is to make use of quantum coherence effects, such as electromagnetically induced transparency or coherent population oscillations, to modify the material response at an atomic level. Another approach is to form artificial material, such as photonic crystals, that possess strong dispersive properties which lead to a large modification to the group velocity. Both of these approaches have been successfully pursued in recent years.
Recently, there has been increasing interest on the idea of controlling optical responses using atomic-coherence or quantum-interferences. Typical example may be the concept of electomagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) [1]. The key idea of EIT is to apply a strong-coupling field between a metastable and upper states to dress them equivalently as two states decaying to a common level or continuum, and to induce the transparency at the split-center of Autler-Townes components. This idea of EIT may open new possibilities to various coherent processes, such as lasing without population inversion, enhanced refractive index without absorption], slow group velocity without absorption, enhanced nonlinearity without absorption, etc.