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Physical Review A

Refractive index enhancement with vanishing absorption in short, high-density vapor cells

Zach J. Simmons, Nicholas Proite, Jared A. Miles, Daniel Sikes, Deniz D. Yavuz

Published May 9, 2012• 23 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It has recently been predicted and experimentally demonstrated that the refractive index of a vapor may be enhanced while maintaining vanishing absorption by using the interference of two Raman transitions, one absorptive and one amplifying in nature. In this paper, we present a detailed experimental study of this technique in a 1-mm-long rubidium (Rb) vapor cell with densities exceeding ${10}^{14}$ cm${}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. We study the optimization of the achieved refractive index as various experimental parameters are varied and discuss a number of limitations of the current experiments. We also present a detailed discussion of possible experimental improvements and future prospects of this technique.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.053810

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It has recently been predicted and experimentally demonstrated that the refractive index of a vapor may be enhanced while maintaining vanishing absorption by using the interference of two Raman transitions, one absorptive and one amplifying in nature. In this paper, we present a detailed experimental study of this technique in a 1-mm-long rubidium (Rb) vapor cell with densities exceeding 1014{10}^{14}1014 cm\ensuremath−3{}^{\ensuremath{-}3}\ensuremath−3. We study the optimization of the achieved refractive index as various experimental parameters are varied and discuss a number of limitations of the current experiments. We also present a detailed discussion of possible experimental improvements and future prospects of this technique.
We report a proof-of-principle experiment where the refractive index of an atomic vapor is enhanced while maintaining vanishing absorption of the beam. The key idea is to drive alkali atoms in a vapor with appropriate control lasers and induce a gain resonance and an absorption resonance for a probe beam in a two-photon Raman configuration. The strength and the position of these two resonances can be manipulated by changing the parameters of the control lasers. By using the interference between these two resonances, we obtain an enhanced refractive index without an increase in the absorption.
The potential to precisely control both the linear and nonlinear index of refraction through optical manipulation of the atomic states has recently pushed warm alkali vapors to the forefront of research in the field of quantum sensors, quantum memories, and quantum fluids of light. Rubidium (Rb) vapor in centimeter-scale glass cells or millimeter-scale MEMS cells has proven to be a very promising platform for these applications, yet only a handful of research works have been dedicated to the investigation of the (non)linear refractive index of Rb vapor. We present results of theoretical calculations of the (non)linear refractive index of warm Rb vapor, based on the optical Bloch equations for 6-level Rb atoms interacting with a probe laser. They are compared to the experimental results obtained using an interferometric technique, showing excellent quantitative agreement. A Kerr nonlinear refractive index n2n_2n2​ of up to 10−410^{-4}10−4 cm2^22/W is obtained. Python scripts for all theoretical calculations presented in this work are provided, including the refractive index calculation, that can readily be used in practical implementations for simulating the (non)linear refractive index of Rb vapor including the effects of Doppler broadening, transit time broadening, pressure broadening, saturation, optical pumping, and spin-exchange collisions.
The potential to precisely control both the linear and nonlinear index of refraction through optical manipulation of the atomic states has recently pushed warm alkali vapors to the forefront of research in the field of quantum sensors, quantum memories, and quantum fluids of light. Rubidium (Rb) vapor in centimeter-scale glass cells or millimeter-scale micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) cells has proven to be a very promising platform for these applications, yet only a handful of research works have been dedicated to the investigation of the (non)linear refractive index of Rb vapor. We present results of theoretical calculations of the (non)linear refractive index of warm Rb vapor, based on the optical Bloch equations for 6-level Rb atoms interacting with a probe laser. They are compared to the experimental results obtained using an interferometric technique, showing very good quantitative agreement. A Kerr nonlinear refractive index n2 of up to −1.2×10−4 cm2/W is obtained. Python scripts for all theoretical calculations presented in this work are provided, including the refractive index calculation, that can readily be used in practical implementations for simulating the (non)linear refractive index of Rb vapor including the effects of Doppler broadening, transit time broadening, pressure broadening, saturation, optical pumping, and spin-exchange collisions.
Enhancement and control of the index of refraction in a mixture of two three-level atomic species that form a pair of far-detuned $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ schemes under two-photon resonance has been studied. We employ the density-matrix approach to properly take population relaxation into account and to describe the interaction of each $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system with the electromagnetic fields. Both $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ systems are driven by a corresponding far-detuned coherent field at one atomic transition and are probed by the same weak field. In the dressed-state basis, it represents a superposition of effective two-level subsystems with the positions, widths, and amplitudes of the resonances controlled by the driving fields and allows for efficient control of the susceptibility of the total system; leading to refractive index (RI) enhancement with vanishing absorption in the absence of amplification. We analyze the experimental implementation of such a system in a cell of Rb atoms with a natural abundance of isotopes. An upper limit estimate of the RI enhancement is obtained.
Refractive index enhancement accompanied by vanishing absorption in a four-level atomic system interacting with two control and two probe fields in a regime of four-wave mixing (FWM) has been predicted and studied in the present work. We analyzed the maximal index enhancement in the four-level FWM system and gave index estimates for a real atomic gas of 40{}^{40}40K, taking into account its multilevel structure and collisional and Doppler broadenings at large atomic densities. We also discussed how vanishing absorption with no nearby amplification can be realized in a two species system, consisting of a four-level FWM and a two-level system, where the latter provides additional absorption for one of the probe fields. We numerically estimated the index change in a system composed of 40{}^{40}40K and 39{}^{39}39K gases.