Abstract Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a quantum interference effect arising from different transition pathways of optical fields. Within the transparency window, both absorption and dispersion properties strongly change, which results in extensive applications such as slow light and optical storage. Due to the ultrahigh quality factors, massive production on a chip and convenient all‐optical control, optical microcavities provide an ideal platform for realizing EIT. Here we review the principle and recent development of EIT in optical microcavities. We focus on the following three situations. First, for a coupled‐cavity system, all‐optical EIT appears when the optical modes in different cavities couple to each other. Second, in a single microcavity, all‐optical EIT is created when interference happens between two optical modes. Moreover, the mechanical oscillation of the microcavity leads to optomechanically induced transparency. Then the applications of EIT effect in microcavity systems are discussed, including light delay and storage, sensing, and field enhancement. A summary is then given in the final part of the paper.
Abstract Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a quantum interference effect arising from different transition pathways of optical fields. Within the transparency window, both absorption and dispersion properties strongly change, which results in extensive applications such as slow light and optical storage. Due to the ultrahigh quality factors, massive production on a chip and convenient all‐optical control, optical microcavities provide an ideal platform for realizing EIT. Here we review the principle and recent development of EIT in optical microcavities. We focus on the following three situations. First, for a coupled‐cavity system, all‐optical EIT appears when the optical modes in different cavities couple to each other. Second, in a single microcavity, all‐optical EIT is created when interference happens between two optical modes. Moreover, the mechanical oscillation of the microcavity leads to optomechanically induced transparency. Then the applications of EIT effect in microcavity systems are discussed, including light delay and storage, sensing, and field enhancement. A summary is then given in the final part of the paper.
Induced transparency, an interference effect due to mode coupling, has attracted significant research interest. The first discovered and most striking type of induced transparency plays electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in atomic systems. Optical cavities serve as a more ideal and feasible platform for realizing the effects of induced transparency, which leads to considerable demonstrations in theory and experiments. This review provides a run‐through of research findings on different types of induced transparency phenomenon, including, inter alia, EIT, optomechanically induced transparency, plasmon‐induced transparency, Brillouin scattering induced transparency, optically induced transparency, photothermally induced transparency, and dipole‐induced transparency. Their mechanisms, developments, techniques, and applications are discussed in detail. Most importantly, the emerging area of induced transparency at exceptional points is analyzed for its great promise. The last section presents a brief summary and perspective of induced transparency with optical cavities.
Electromagnetically induced transparency is a quantum interference effect observed in atoms and molecules, in which the optical response of an atomic medium is controlled by an electromagnetic field. We demonstrated a form of induced transparency enabled by radiation-pressure coupling of an optical and a mechanical mode. A control optical beam tuned to a sideband transition of a micro-optomechanical system leads to destructive interference for the excitation of an intracavity probe field, inducing a tunable transparency window for the probe beam. Optomechanically induced transparency may be used for slowing and on-chip storage of light pulses via microfabricated optomechanical arrays.
Abstract Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) stems from a quantum system, where an opaque atomic medium appears the narrow transparent state within a wide absorption area. This phenomenon can be achieved by quantum interference of pumping light and detecting light at different energy levels of transitions. In the generation process of EIT effect, in addition to transparent state, the atomic medium is usually accompanied with a strong dispersion effect, which will bright about a significant reduction of light velocity, thus realizing many important applications, such as slow light propagations. Although the EIT effect has many important applications, its application scenarios are greatly limited due to the fact that EIT realization usually requires specific and complicated conditions, such as refrigeration temperature, high intensity laser, etc. Recently, the analogue of EIT effect in metamaterial has attracted increasing attentions due to its advantages such as controllable room temperature and large operating bandwidth. Metamaterial analogue of EIT effect has become a new research focus. In this article, we review current research progresses on EIT metamaterials. Firstly, we describe the theoretical models for analyzing EIT metamaterials, including the mechanical oscillator model and the equivalent circuit model. Then, we describe the simulations, designs and experiments of passive EIT metamaterials with fixed structures and active EIT metamaterials with tunable elements. Furthermore, the applications of EIT metamaterials in the areas of slow lights, sensings, absorptions and other fields are also reviewed. Finally, the possible directions and key issues of future EIT metamaterial researches are prospected.
Optical interference and the related effects are key elements which could exhibit the properties of both classical and quantum optical systems. Usually, the interference between different optical paths may produce intriguing effects, such as the electromagnetically induced transparent (EIT) and so on. In this work, we study the interference effects in directly coupled whispering-gallery mode (WGM) micro-resonators, in which the emergence of EIT and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) could be observed. We find by tuning the coupling strength between the resonators, the modulation phase may control the appearance and disappearance of EIT (EIA). Furthermore, we prove the existence of fast and slow light, and propose a scheme for effective switching between them. This work provides a new strategy for obtaining slow light and quantum storage in the WGM micro-resonators.
The optical analogs of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) have attracted vast attention recently. The generation and manipulation of EIT in microcavities have sparked research in both fundamental physics and photonic applications, including light storage, slow light propagation, and optical communication. In this Letter, the generation and tuning of an all-optically controlled mode-coupling induced transparency (MCIT) are proposed, experimentally demonstrated, and theoretically analyzed. The MCIT effect originated from the intermodal coupling between the plethora of modes generated in our fabricated optical microcavity, and the tuning of the transparency mode utilized the cavity's thermal bistability nature. Furthermore, based on our method, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, controlling of the mode shifting efficiency is also achieved with an increase up to two times and more. The proposed scheme paves a unique, simple, and efficient way to manipulate the induced transparency mode, which can be useful for applications like cavity lasing and thermal sensing.
Abstract An all‐optical control scheme of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) based on two coupled silica microbottle cavities coated with iron oxide nanoparticles is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The specially designed and fabricated silica microbottle cavity with a short and spherical end, which is coated with iron oxide nanoparticles, possesses a quality ( Q ) factor of 1.39×10 8 and large all‐optical tunability in a range of 282.32 GHz (2.25 nm) arising from the strong photothermal effect of the nanoparticles. Based on two coupled silica microbottle cavities, we achieve the EIT spectrum with a transparency window bandwidth of 2.3 MHz. The transparency window can be flexibly controlled by tuning the resonant frequency of the higher‐ Q microcavity. Besides, by tuning the resonant frequencies of the two microcavities separately, the whole EIT spectrum can be shifted with a range of 71.52 GHz, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time. Based on this scheme, we have realized all‐optical and independent control of the transparency window and the whole EIT spectrum. We believe this work has great potential in applications such as light storage, optical sensing, and quantum optics.