Recoil-induced Resonances as All-optical Switches

Joel A. Greenberg, Marcos Oriá, Daniel J. Gauthier

J.-Y. Courtois, G. Grynberg

P. R. Berman, B. Dubetsky, Jingzhong Guo

Joel A. Greenberg, Daniel J. Gauthier

K. Gordon, S. A. DeSavage, D. Duncan +3 more

We have investigated recoil-induced resonances in laser-cooled atoms for the purpose of developing an optical switch. In contrast to our earlier experiments Citation8, we employ a system in which the trapping beams are left on during the course of the measurement. We not only find the expected narrow resonance but also a much wider resonance. The widths of the wide and narrow resonances differ by three orders of magnitude. In addition, the two resonances show different temporal dynamics. We explore the utility of each resonance as an optical switch.

Mukund Vengalattore, Mara Goff Prentiss

An optically dense, anisotropic cloud of ultracold atoms is used to observe recoil-induced resonances in the high-gain regime. Optical gains as large as 30 are realized, limited primarily by pump depletion. We demonstrate a light-amplified all-optical switch based on this effect. The switch exhibits contrasts exceeding 35 dB.