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Physical Review A

Achieving nonlinear optical modulation via four-wave mixing in a four-level atomic system

Hai‐Chao Li, Guo-Qin Ge, Muhammad Suhail Zubairy

Published May 18, 2018• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose an accessible scheme for implementing tunable nonlinear optical amplification and attenuation via a synergetic mechanism of four-wave mixing (FWM) and optical interference in a four-level ladder-type atomic system. By constructing a cyclic atom-field interaction, we show that two reverse FWM processes can coexist via optical transitions in different branches. In the suitable input-field conditions, strong interference effects between the input fields and the generated FWM fields can be induced and result in large amplification and deep attenuation of the output fields. Moreover, such an optical modulation from enhancement to suppression can be controlled by tuning the relative phase. The quantum system can be served as a switchable optical modulator with potential applications in quantum nonlinear optics.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.053826

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We investigate the interplay between six-wave mixing (SWM) and four-wave mixing (FWM) resulting from atomic coherence and polarization beat in a four-level atomic system. The dressed FWM evolution and competition pathways can be controlled by the coupling field to exhibit two FWM and SWM turning points, FWM+SWM, and FWM+FWM interference regions. Quantum interference between two FWM or one FWM and one SWM channels leads to nonlinear signal enhancement and suppression under different conditions. The fifth-order nonlinear response can be obtained by the phase control of the polarization beat between the FWM and SWM signals.
We demonstrate the controllable nonlinear microwave modulation in a cyclically driven three-level superconducting Josephson system. By designing two subtle matched conditions in the △-type atom-field configuration, a new physical mechanism – combined action of nonlinear wave mixing and wave interference – is developed and leads to not only amplification but also attenuation for two microwave signals. Our results show that such a nonlinear manipulation of the signal transition from enhancement to damping can be tuned in a large scope by controlling the relative phase and the driving-field frequency and thus the solid-state Josephson system can act as a phase- and frequency-controlled amplitude modulator. Our study opens up a fascinating perspective for its widespread applications in nonlinear optics and quantum information science.
A nonlinear optical four-wave mixing scheme is presented and analysed for the generation of coherent light in a nearly four-level ladder-type atomic system in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We find that EIT can suppress nonlinear photon absorption and the peak of the generated mixing field is located at the centre of the transparency window where the loss is minimal, though there is a dip in the centre. Such a nonlinear optical process can also be used for generating coherent short-wavelength radiation.
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We propose a four-level cascade-type atomic system in which two reverse four-wave mixing (FWM) processes can coexist via optical transitions in distinct pathways. This enables the generation of high- or low-frequency vortex beams on demand and facilitates spatial phase modulation of the vortex beam intensity distribution. The two reverse FWM processes can yield the sum-frequency vortex beam with high frequency and the difference-frequency vortex beam with low frequency, corresponding to frequency up-conversion and down-conversion, respectively. The closed-loop configuration's phase sensitivity allows for asymmetric phase modulation of the spatial distributions of the two output vortex beams. Additionally, increasing the phase enables spatial rotation of the output beams. Our proposed scheme holds promise for potential applications in quantum nonlinear optics and vortex exchange.