Control of Optical Responses with Quantum Interferences

Jian Qi Shen

A tripod-configuration four-level atomic system can exhibit nontrivial quantum destructive and constructive interference that could manipulate the optical response of an atomic vapour. It is shown that the tunable double-control electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) would be controlled via the quantum interference between two control fields interacting with the present atomic system. If a metallic waveguide is filled with such a double-control four-level atomic vapour, the quantum vacuum mode structure in the present EIT waveguide would have a novel influence on the atomic spontaneous emission decay (and hence on the EIT optical behavior). As the waveguide dimension change (i.e., the change in length scale of cross section of waveguide) can vary the vacuum mode structure, which can lead to spontaneous emission enhancement or inhibition, the optical response (including absorption and transparency induced by the tunable double-control quantum destructive and constructive interference) of the atomic vapour in the waveguide is quite sensitive to small change in the waveguide dimension caused by external environmental factors (such as electric signal voltage, environmental temperature change and acoustic pressure). The sensitive optical response based on the mechanisms of both double-control quantum interference and quantum-vacuum manipulation presented here may have some potential applications to the technique for designing new photonic and quantum optical devices.

A. A. Villaeys, Karl F. Freed

Hans‐A. Bachor

A. Kani, Harshawardhan Wanare

\n\nWeak coherent radiation interacting with multilevel atomic systems can excite a family of higher-order multiphoton transitions in contravention to conventional perturbative analysis. Monochromatic excitation leads to a strong anisotropic response arising from the interference of numerous underlying multiphoton pathways. The interference can be controlled through the polarization content of the input radiation. This anisotropic response is subnatural, quite unlike the anisotropy arising from spontaneous-emission–assisted optical pumping. Its sensitivity to external influences such as magnetic field suggests its utility in magnetometry. Specifically, we discover the presence of an elemental closed loop involving series of absorption and emission cycles that is central to the total response, and is universal to all atomic configurations. However, as not all atomic configurations support such anisotropy, we present a general classification of atomic transitions that exhibit anisotropic nonlinear response through quantum interference.\n

Teh Chau Liau, Jin‐Jei Wu, Jian Qi Shen +1 more

The optical response of an atomic vapor can be controlled by using tunable quantum interference induced by external control field. A periodic layered medium whose unit cells consist of dielectric (e.g., GaAs) and EIT (electromagnetically induced transparency) atomic vapor is suggested. It is demonstrated that such an EIT-based periodic layered medium shows more flexible optical response (sensitive to frequency) than a conventional photonic crystal does. The controllable band structure that depends on the external control field can be applicable to designs of new devices such as photonic switches and photonic logic gates, where one laser field can be controlled by the other one, and would have potential applications in the field of integrated optical circuits and other related areas, e.g., the all-optical technique.

Holger Schmidt