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International Journal of Optics and Photonic Engineering

Coherent Control of Optical Nonreciprocal Propagation in a V-Type Atomic System

Yihong Qi, Wang Peng, Niu Yue-Ping, Gong Shang-Qing

Published Jun 30, 2020• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Optical nonreciprocity and nonreciprocal propagation of light have attracted great research interest, due to not only their fundamental scientific significance, but also their extensive applications in lasing, quantum optical devices and quantum information. In this work, we theoretically and experimentally investigate nonreciprocal propagation of light in a V-type three-level thermal atomic system.

DOI
10.35840/2631-5092/4523

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Optical nonreciprocity and nonreciprocal propagation of light have attracted great research interest, due to not only their fundamental scientific significance, but also their extensive applications in lasing, quantum optical devices and quantum information. In this work, we theoretically and experimentally investigate nonreciprocal propagation of light in a V-type three-level thermal atomic system.
The thesis is devoted to the theoretical studies of coherent control and manipulation of classical or quantum light via nonlocal effects. At the classical level, controllable light propagation dynamics in the paraxial regime is investigated. The specific type of nonlocal linear effects induced in thermal atomic vapor is explored to achieve diffractionless and lossless propagation, uniform phase modulation, and frequency conversion with diffractionless image duplication for laser beams with arbitrarily encoded spatial profiles. Next, the study is extended to investigate propagation dynamics in the presence of nonlocal nonlinear effects generated in thermal interacting Rydberg atoms, which mainly reveals simultaneous competition between the nonlocal nonlinear absorption and the modulational instability for each wave component. Moreover, parity-time (PT) symmetric dynamics in cold Rydberg atoms are exploited, and it is shown that a phase transition from unbroken to broken PT symmetry can be induced by nonlocal nonlinear effects. At the quantum level, it is further proposed to test the quantum nonlocality of single x-ray photons in a system where very weak x-ray pulses interact with 57Fe nuclei in a thin cavity, such that a Bell-like inequality in the single-photon version is violated. All these proposals are feasible in current experimental settings.
Abstract Hot atoms can exhibit non-magnetic optical non-reciprocal transmission due to their chiral properties, which are characteristic of most alkali metal atoms. In fact, the nonreciprocity in hot atoms depends on the propagation direction of the coupling field due to the Doppler effect. Herein, the reciprocal to non-reciprocal conversion based on the single- and double-dark states is realized by controlling the bidirectional coupling fields in a three-level electromagnetically induced transparent medium coupled with a ring cavity. Tuning the frequency difference between the two coupling fields causes the multi-frequency-channel reciprocity and nonreciprocity manipulation to occur. The experimental proof can be applied to quantum communications and quantum networks, such as optical transistors, all-optical switching or routing and logic gate operation.
Optical nonreciprocity is an essential property for a wide range of applications, such as building nonreciprocal optical devices that include isolators and circulators. The realization of optical nonreciprocity relies on breaking the symmetry associated with Lorentz reciprocity, which typically requires stringent conditions such as introducing a strong magnetic field or a high-finesse cavity with nonreciprocal coupling geometry. Here we discover that the collision effect of thermal atoms, which is undesirable for most studies, can induce broadband optical nonreciprocity. By exploiting the thermal atomic collision, we experimentally observe magnet-free and cavity-free optical nonreciprocity, which possesses a high isolation ratio, ultrabroad bandwidth, and low insertion loss simultaneously. The maximum isolation ratio is close to 40 dB, while the insertion loss is less than 1 dB. The bandwidth for an isolation ratio exceeding 20 dB is over 1.2 GHz, which is 2 orders of magnitude broader than typical resonance-enhanced optical isolators. Our work paves the way for the realization of high-performance optical nonreciprocal devices and provides opportunities for applications in integrated optics and quantum networks.
Abstract Vortex beams have important applications in a number of physical fields such as optical information processing, optical imaging, etc. Nonreciprocal propagation of light often plays a key role in some occasions in these applications. In this work, we investigate the nonreciprocal propagation of a vortex beam using a far-off resonant Raman process in a Λ -type three-level thermal atomic system. The probe vortex can propagate with high transmission in the backward direction and be well isolated in the forward direction. Via adjusting the strong control field and the atom temperature, the forward transmission of the probe vortex can be further suppressed, and higher isolation can be achieved under the use of a controlled vortex with the same orbital angular momentum. This work may provide reference for experimental studies on the nonreciprocal transmission of vortex beams and find applications in vortex isolators and circulators.
Abstract Optical nonreciprocity provides a firm basis for direction-dependent control of light transport. We propose a scheme to manipulate two counter-propagating light pulses based on dynamically controlled dual-channel optical nonreciprocity originating from the Doppler effect. This scheme is implemented in a four-level tripod-type thermal atomic medium driven by two counter-propagating control fields. Symmetric or asymmetric propagation and storage scenarios for the two probe pulses can be established by adjusting the detunings and intensities of the control fields. In particular, complete separation of the forward and backward transmission windows enables the realization of a frequency-tunable bidirectional optical isolator. Doppler shifts make the tripod system behave as two weakly coupled three-level Λ-type channels associated mainly with the forward and backward probe fields. Our proposal may have potential applications in designing direction-dependent all-optical devices for manipulating multiple optical pulses.