In analogy to electromagnetically induced transparency observed in atomic systems, we demonstrate that the transmission of a probe laser beam through an optomechanical device can be modulated all-optically using a second, “control” laser beam.
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 We study the reflected and transmitted output properties of a weak probe field incident upon an optomechanical cavity separated by a membrane oscillator and filled with two-level cold atoms. We find that electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) may simultaneously exist owing to separate cavity–atom coupling and cavity-oscillator coupling, respectively. It is more interesting that the hybrid EIT and OMIT phenomena can be manipulated on demand to exhibit various spectral features on dispersion, transmission, and reflection. In particular, we discover the new hybrid double transparency window (a narrow OMIT dip appearing inside the wide EIT window), analogous to double EIT for a four-level atomic system in inverted-Y configuration. Meanwhile, we can reduce the hybrid EIT–OMIT to a single EIT or OMIT shape by changing the magnitude of the driving field power or the atomic number as desired. Furthermore, by changing the system’s detuning it is possible to change the location and the profile of the EIT, therefore switching the shape of the hybrid EIT–OMIT from symmetric to asymmetric, as well as for the profile to change from a absorption dip-like EIT to dispersion-like EIT in both real and imaginary parts of the output probe field. Also, by modifying system’s detuning we have control over the distribution of the output energy, something difficult to achieve with only one of the sub-systems available.