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Physica Scripta

Enhanced photon drag in closed-loop quantum systems

Seyedeh Hamideh Kazemi, Mohammad Mahmoudi

Published Aug 2, 2019• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, photon drag has attracted enormous attention owing to both fundamental and practical interests. In this paper, we investigate dragging effect in quantum systems with closed-loop interaction. First, we demonstrate an enhanced photon drag in a moving atomic medium with a three-level Λ-type structure. By incorporating the interference of spontaneous emissions, the properties of the atomic medium can be easily controlled by the relative phase of applied fields so that a large group index along with a transparency or even a gain can be achieved. As the photon drag is proportional to the group index, the enhancement can be also found in the dragging of light. Such enhanced dragging effect can be applied for the efficient modulators of light, position control, and the detection of slow motion. We then investigate the Fresnel’s light drag effect in another closed-loop structure, i.e. chiral molecules with a cyclic three-level Δ-type configuration, and show that left- and right-handed chiral molecules exhibit different dragging effects. This provides a possible way to probe the molecular chirality, which may find applications in the sorting and separation of chiral molecules.

DOI
10.1088/1402-4896/ab3843

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Abstract In recent years, photon drag has attracted enormous attention owing to both fundamental and practical interests. In this paper, we investigate dragging effect in quantum systems with closed-loop interaction. First, we demonstrate an enhanced photon drag in a moving atomic medium with a three-level Λ-type structure. By incorporating the interference of spontaneous emissions, the properties of the atomic medium can be easily controlled by the relative phase of applied fields so that a large group index along with a transparency or even a gain can be achieved. As the photon drag is proportional to the group index, the enhancement can be also found in the dragging of light. Such enhanced dragging effect can be applied for the efficient modulators of light, position control, and the detection of slow motion. We then investigate the Fresnel’s light drag effect in another closed-loop structure, i.e. chiral molecules with a cyclic three-level Δ-type configuration, and show that left- and right-handed chiral molecules exhibit different dragging effects. This provides a possible way to probe the molecular chirality, which may find applications in the sorting and separation of chiral molecules.
Abstract In this paper, we investigate the light drag in an optically dense negative refractive index medium. Our model is a four-level atomic system in which we demonstrate an enhancement of the light drag while keeping the negative refraction condition. Furthermore, we control the shift in the light drag by tuning both the strong coupling field and the detuning. Hence, we observe that the light drag in the negative refractive index material can be controlled to switch from subluminal to superluminal at various ranges of the detuning. Our system suggests a straightforward technique for realizing and controlling light dragging in materials with negative refractive indices, or ‘NRI,’ which might open the way for more efficient use of left-handedness in atomic systems.
Abstract Light dragging refers to the change in the path of light passing through a moving medium. This effect enables accurate detection of very slow speeds of light, which have prominent applications in state transfer, quantum gate operations, and quantum memory implementations. Here, to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate the existence of the light-dragging effect in an optomechanical system (OMS) for the first time. The origin of this key factor arises from the nonlinear effects linked to optomechanical-induced transparency (OMIT). Hence, we observe prominent effects in the group and refractive indices profile spectra related to optomechanical parameters such as the decay rate of the cavity field, the mirror’s damping momentum rate, and mechanical frequency. We find that lateral light drag depends on the detuning by altering the amplitude and direction of the translational velocity. This allowed us to change the light’s propagation through the optomechanical cavity from superluminal to subluminal and vice versa by modifying the probe’s detuning. The ability to manipulate and control the light drag through an optomechanical system might be useful in designing novel optical devices and systems with enhanced performance.
Abstract We present a theoretical investigation of the photon drag by incorporating self-Kerr nonlinearity (SKN) in a Sagnac interferometer featuring a four-level atomic system. By introducing SKN in the system, we demonstrate significant improvements in the photon drag angles, ranging from ±10 micro-radians to ±1 centi-radians. Additionally, the presence of SKN leads to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), reduced group velocities, and a positive group index enhancement within the system. Conversely, in the absence of SKN, a negative group index is observed, accompanied by larger group velocities and minimal photon drag angles. The results obtained may have potential applications in various fields, such as slow-light detection, controlled image coding/design, efficient light modulators, and phase-matching in Brillouin scattering.
We study an optical torque emerging through the interaction of orbital angular momentum with atoms/molecules in quantum systems with closed-loop interactions. First, we show how atoms with a closed-loop scheme experience a well-controlled torque whose features depend on the relative phase of applied fields. Such a controllable torque, along with simplicity of tuning the relative phase, can simplify the implementation of current flows in atomic Bose–Einstein condensates. Moreover, we calculate the optical torque exerted on chiral molecules with cyclic-transition structures and find that the enantiomers can experience different torques for proper choice of the parameters. Such features may find applications in sorting and separation of enantiomers.
Abstract The birefringence of rotary photon drags is investigated through induced chiral atomic medium. The birefringence of refractive and group indices, divergent angle and rotary photon drags were controlled and modified with detuning, phases and strength of Rabi frequencies of the driving fields. The value of divergent angle oscillated between ±0.01 radian with phases of control fields φ 3,4 and is minimum at φ 3 = π , while maximum at φ 4 = π . The right and left circularly polarized beams are drag clockwise due clockwise spinning of the medium in the normal dispersive region, while the right and left circularly polarized beams are drag clockwise due anticlockwise spinning of the medium in anomalous dispersive region. The maximum rotary photon drags of birefringent beams of light is calculated to ±5 milli radian. The results show advancement in molecular structure, dual image coding and image designing technology.
As one of the most influential experiments on the development of modern macroscopic theory from Newtonian mechanics to Einstein's special theory of relativity, the phenomenon of light dragging in a moving medium has been discussed and observed extensively in different types of systems. To have a significant dragging effect, the long duration of light travelling in the medium is preferred. Here we demonstrate a light-dragging experiment in an electromagnetically induced transparent cold atomic ensemble and enhance the dragging effect by at least three orders of magnitude compared with the previous experiments. With a large enhancement of the dragging effect, we realize an atom-based velocimeter that has a sensitivity two orders of magnitude higher than the velocity width of the atomic medium used. Such a demonstration could pave the way for motional sensing using the collective state of atoms in a room temperature vapour cell or solid state material.