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Physical Review A

Imbalance of group velocities for amplitude and phase pulses propagating in a resonant atomic medium

M. Yu. Basalaev, A. V. Taǐchenachev, Valeriy I. Yudin

Published Nov 11, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The dynamics of light pulses with amplitude and phase modulations is investigated for a medium of resonant two-level atoms. It is shown that the pulse-like variations of the phase can be also described in terms of group velocity. It is found that in the nonlinear regime of atom-field interaction, the group velocities of amplitude and phase pulses can have a large imbalance. Namely, amplitude pulses travel at a velocity less than $c$, whereas the group velocity of phase pulses is greater than the velocity of light in free space or it is even negative. The predicted imbalance of the group velocities can be important in the case of chirped pulses propagating in a resonant medium.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.053818

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The dynamics of light pulses with amplitude and phase modulations is investigated for a medium of resonant two-level atoms. It is shown that the pulse-like variations of the phase can be also described in terms of group velocity. It is found that in the nonlinear regime of atom-field interaction, the group velocities of amplitude and phase pulses can have a large imbalance. Namely, amplitude pulses travel at a velocity less than ccc, whereas the group velocity of phase pulses is greater than the velocity of light in free space or it is even negative. The predicted imbalance of the group velocities can be important in the case of chirped pulses propagating in a resonant medium.
We study the dynamics of the phase pulses of laser radiation with two resonant frequency components propagating in an atomic three-level Λ type medium under coherent population trapping. Using the density matrix adiabatic approach we show that the effect of a very large slowing down occurs not only for amplitude pulses, but also for phase pulses. The group velocity of phase pulses can be controlled by the amplitudes of resonant fields. The analytical solution describing the mutual influence of the phase modulation of one field component on another is obtained.
Summary form only given. The propagation of light in a dispersive medium is characterized by the group velocity /spl nu//sub g/=c(n+/spl nu//sup dn//d/spl nu/)/sup .1/ where n is the refractive index and /spl nu/ the optical frequency. Depending on the sign and magnitude of /sup dn//d/spl nu/ in the medium, the group velocity can be positive, infinite or negative. The group velocity corresponds to the speed of the propagation of the maximum of an optical pulse travelling into the medium. This remains true whether the dispersion in the medium is normal (/sup dn//d/spl nu/>0) or anomalous (/sup dn//d/spl nu/<0). It has been demonstrated that coherently prepared atomic systems can exhibit steep dispersion leading to small absolute values of the group velocity (slow light). In recent work, we have demonstrated that narrow resonances arising from the coherent interaction of two optical fields with a closed atomic transition between two degenerate levels may correspond to a steep anomalous dispersion and thus to slow and negative group velocity. We report on the experimental study of the propagation of an amplitude modulated wave in a medium presenting negative group velocity.
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.
We investigate the problem of propagation of three-component resonant light pulses with adiabatically varying amplitudes through a medium consisting of atoms with the tripod level configuration. By means of both analytic and numerical methods we find the two modes of shape-preserving pulse propagation. The pulse propagation velocity of the fast mode is equal to the speed of light in vacuum, whereas the group velocity of the other (slow) mode is significantly slowed down. These two modes represent a general asymptotic solution of the problem of adiabatic pulse propagation, i.e., a pulse of any shape, which is consistent with the adiabaticity conditions, and a finite duration evolves at large propagation distances (and, correspondingly, at large times of interaction with the medium) to a well-separated pair of fast and slow pulses. The experimental requirements for adiabatic pulse propagation in a tripod medium are similar to that needed for observation of slow light propagation in a medium with the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ configuration of levels. However, the tripod scheme offers a different possibility, which is absent in the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-medium case: collisions of fast and slow pulses. It is found numerically that after such a collision the shapes of the pulses change, so these pulses do not match the classical definition of a soliton.
The propagation of an off-resonant, single-photon pulse in and into a medium of two-level atoms is considered. When the pulse is launched from within the medium, there are two propagation speeds, neither of which is the normal group velocity. For densities as small as 1011{}^{11}11 atoms/cm3{}^{3}3 and detunings of order 1011{}^{11}11 s${}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, both propagation speeds approach one half the speed of light in vacuum. Moreover, rather remarkably, there are Rabi oscillations between the field and atomic excitation, even for this single-photon pulse. In contrast, for a pulse sent into the medium, the atom-field system remains adiabatically in a dressed state that propagates with the normal group velocity. In the limit that the index of refraction is approximately equal to unity, we obtain the Fresnel equations for the reflection and transmission coefficients based on this microscopic model. The transmission coefficient differs from the conventional result owing to the fact that we quantize the field in free space.
We study numerically the propagation of two-color light pulses through a metamaterial doped with active atoms such that the carrier frequencies of the pulses are in resonance with two atomic transitions in the Λ configuration and that one color propagates in the regime of positive refraction and the other in the regime of negative refraction. In such a metamaterial, one resonant color of light propagates with positive and the other with negative group velocity. We investigate nonlinear interaction of these forward- and backward-propagating waves and find self-trapped waves, counterpropagating radiation waves, and hot spots of medium excitation.