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Optics Express

Superluminal reflection and transmission of light pulses via resonant four-wave mixing in cesium vapor

Qichang Jiang, Yan Zhang, Dan Wang, Sven Ahrens, Junxiang Zhang, Shi‐Yao Zhu

Published Oct 12, 2016• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the experimental manipulation of the group velocities of reflected and transmitted light pulses in a degenerate two-level atomic system driven by a standing wave, which is created by two counter-propagating light beams of equal frequencies but variable amplitudes. It is shown that the light pulse is reflected with superluminal group velocity while the transmitted pulse propagates from subluminal to superluminal velocities via changing the power of the backward coupling field. We find that the simultaneous superluminal light reflection and transmission can be reached when the power of the backward field becomes closer or equal to the forward power, in this case the periodical absorption modulation for photonic structure is established in atoms. The theoretical discussion shows that the anomalous dispersion associated with a resonant absorption dip within the gain peak due to four-wave mixing leads to the superluminal reflection, while the varying dispersion from normal to anomalous at transparency, transparency within absorption, and electromagnetically induced absorption windows leads to the subluminal to superluminal transmission.

DOI
10.1364/oe.24.024451

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We report the experimental manipulation of the group velocities of reflected and transmitted light pulses in a degenerate two-level atomic system driven by a standing wave, which is created by two counter-propagating light beams of equal frequencies but variable amplitudes. It is shown that the light pulse is reflected with superluminal group velocity while the transmitted pulse propagates from subluminal to superluminal velocities via changing the power of the backward coupling field. We find that the simultaneous superluminal light reflection and transmission can be reached when the power of the backward field becomes closer or equal to the forward power, in this case the periodical absorption modulation for photonic structure is established in atoms. The theoretical discussion shows that the anomalous dispersion associated with a resonant absorption dip within the gain peak due to four-wave mixing leads to the superluminal reflection, while the varying dispersion from normal to anomalous at transparency, transparency within absorption, and electromagnetically induced absorption windows leads to the subluminal to superluminal transmission.
Abstract The manipulation of the group velocity of light is very important in further information processing and quantum network. It is well known that subluminal and superluminal light propagation can be obtained by controlling the dispersion property of the experimental medium. In order to realize the switching from normal dispersion to anomalous dispersion at the same frequency, we investigate the dispersion and absorption properties of a four-level atomic system. By adjusting the intensity of an incoherent pump, we get transparent normal dispersion and lossless anomalous dispersion, which lead to subluminal and superluminal light propagation respectively. For a strong incoherent pump, the intensity of the coherent coupling field also can be used to realize a similar switching effect.
We were able to arbitrarily control the speed of a light pulse from subluminal to superluminal velocity by changing only the power of the laser for coupling coherently the single transition between 62S1/2F=46{}^{2}{S}_{1/2}F=462S1/2​F=4 and $6{}^{2}{P}_{3/2}{F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=5$ in the D2{D}_{2}D2​ line of a Cs atomic vapor system. With weak coupling power, a Gaussian light pulse was propagated superluminally with a negative group velocity ${v}_{g}=\ensuremath{-}c/14400,$ which is caused by a highly anomalous dispersion related to an electromagnetically induced absorption. By increasing the coupling power at the same laser frequency, the pulses were propagated with a vacuum speed at the middle power and a subluminal group velocity vg=c/3000{v}_{g}=c/3000vg​=c/3000 at high power, which is caused by a normal dispersion related to an electromagnetically induced transparency. It was also found that group velocities depend largely on polarization combinations.
We present the continuous control of the light group velocity from subluminal to superluminal propagation with an on-resonant standing-wave coupling field in the 5S1/25{S}_{1/2}5S1/2​--5P1/25{P}_{1/2}5P1/2​ transition of the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type system of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms. When a coupling field was changed from a traveling-wave to a standing-wave field by adjusting the power of a counterpropagating coupling field, the probe pulse propagation continuously transformed from subluminal propagation, due to electromagnetically induced transparency with the traveling-wave coupling field, to superluminal propagation, due to narrow enhanced absorption with the standing-wave coupling field. The group velocity of the probe pulse was measured to be approximately 0.004ccc to $\ensuremath{-}0.0020.0020.002c$ as a function of the disparity between the powers of the copropagating and the counterpropagating coupling fields.
We analyse the group velocity of a laser pulse in an optically dressed atomic system. A Λ system with an additional close upper level and an incoherent pump is specially investigated. The group velocity of a pulse is strongly dependent on the optical properties of the system which can be modified by changing the amplitude or detuning of a strong coupling field or of an incoherent pump between the two lower levels of the system. Depending on the parameters, the medium may have alternatively absorptive or gain properties and the dispersion can be changed from anomalous into a normal one. The ranges of parameters are especially investigated in which absorption (gain) is not too strong, with dispersion being not too steep. The group velocity of a pulse propagating through a sample with such optical properties can be switched from the subinto superluminal regime. The dynamics of propagation in the case of negative group velocities of a small absolute value is especially interesting. In such a regime the peak of the transmitted pulse exits the sample before the peak of the incoming pulse reaches the medium. The transmitted pulse splits into two pulses - one of them propagates forward behind the medium and the other propagates backward and is cancelled at the entrance of the sample by the incoming pulse. Ranges of parameters are seeked in which the shape of the pulse is changed and the group velocity as a single parameter is not sufficient to describe the pulse propagation.
A study about the reflection and transmission of an electromagnetic pulse through a slab doped with four-level atomic system has been presented. The doped atoms are considered to be in N-configuration with a pump field and a weak probe field. An additional control field is also applied to manipulate the Raman gain of the atomic medium. The propagation of transmitted and reflected pulses at different control field strengths and different slab thickness has been studied. It is found that the transmitted and reflected pulses can be simultaneously subluminal or superluminal. These pulses can be controlled from subluminal to superluminal by adjusting the strength of the control field
Optical pulse propagation in photonic grating structures can show anomalous (i.e., superluminal or negative) group velocities under certain circumstances owing to the anomalous dispersive properties induced by the periodic grating structure. Such phenomena can be observed for either linear pulse propagation in passive dielectric grating structures, such as in fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), as well as in frequency-conversion processes exploiting second-order cascading effects in quasi-phase-matched (QPM) nonlinear crystals. Engineering of the grating structure can be exploited to observe a wide variety of anomalous pulse transmission and reflection behaviors. In this article, we review the main recent experimental and theoretical achievements obtained by our group in this field. In particular, we report on superluminal propagation of picosecond optical pulses at the 1.5-μm wavelength of optical communications in FBGs, both in transmission and reflection configurations, with the observation of group velocities as large as ∼5c/sub 0/. We also show that the phenomenon of transparent pulse propagation at a negative group velocity in a gain doublet atomic amplifier, recently observed in cesium vapor by Wang and co-workers (L. J. Wang, A. Kuzmich, and A. Dogariu, Nature vol.406, p.277-9, 2000), can be achieved as well in a photonic parametric amplifier by exploiting the anomalous dispersive properties of the amplifier induced by a suitably designed QPM grating profile.