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Annalen der Physik

Local field contribution to the optical properties of multilevel coherent atomic media

J.Q. Shen, Sailing He

Published Jun 12, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The local field contribution to some three‐ and four‐level coherent atomic vapors is considered, and a significant modification to optical properties due to dipole‐dipole interaction between neighboring atoms is discussed. It is found that the local field effect can reduce loss of a four‐level N‐type vapor medium at the resonant frequency in both the steady and transient cases. In order to achieve a left‐handed medium with a negative refractive index, a scenario to realize simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability inside a mixed coherent atomic vapor by using quantum coherence effect is suggested. One of the remarkable features of the present scheme is such that it can lead to a controllable manipulation of negative refractive index of an atomic vapor by using external coupling and signal fields. This may be a new scheme to fabricate the negatively refracting materials based on quantum optical approach.

DOI
10.1002/andp.200751905-605

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Abstract The local field contribution to some three‐ and four‐level coherent atomic vapors is considered, and a significant modification to optical properties due to dipole‐dipole interaction between neighboring atoms is discussed. It is found that the local field effect can reduce loss of a four‐level N‐type vapor medium at the resonant frequency in both the steady and transient cases. In order to achieve a left‐handed medium with a negative refractive index, a scenario to realize simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability inside a mixed coherent atomic vapor by using quantum coherence effect is suggested. One of the remarkable features of the present scheme is such that it can lead to a controllable manipulation of negative refractive index of an atomic vapor by using external coupling and signal fields. This may be a new scheme to fabricate the negatively refracting materials based on quantum optical approach.
A new mechanism for realizing negative refractive index with a four-level atomic system is suggested. The explicit expressions for the electric permittivity and magnetic permeability at probe frequency are presented. It is shown that there is a frequency band in which the four-level photonic-resonant atomic vapour may exhibit simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability, and that such an atomic vapour may become a left-handed material (negatively refracting medium). Compared with the previous schemes to realize negative refraction within the framework of classical electromagnetic theory, the most remarkable features of the present scenario are as follows: (i) isotropic material with microscopic structure units at atomic-scale level, (ii) negative refraction in visible and infrared frequency bands, (iii) controllable manipulation by external fields and (iv) based on quantum coherence in a multilevel atomic system.
A scenario for realizing simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability of a two-photon quantum-coherent atomic vapor is suggested in order to achieve a left-handed atomic medium with a negative refractive index. One of the remarkable features of the present scheme is that it can lead to a controllable manipulation of the negative refractive index of the atomic vapor. Since the electric- and magnetic-dipole allowed transitions of atoms can be excited by visible and infrared lightwaves, the refractive index of the atomic vapor can exhibit its negative refractive index at optical and near-optical frequency bands. This may be a new scheme to fabricate a negatively refracting material based on the quantum optical approach. Such a three-dimensionally isotropic negative refractive index at visible and infrared wavelengths induced by the two-photon-resonant quantum coherence would find a potential application in fabrication of superlenses for perfect imaging and subwavelength focusing.
Since previous negative-index atomic media based on quantum optical approaches are highly lossy, a proposal for realizing a three-dimensionally isotropic left-handed atomic vapor medium is suggested based on a mechanism of incoherent gain assisted atomic transitions. Two three-level atomic systems are utilized for producing simultaneously negative permittivity and negative permeability, respectively, in the same frequency band. We suggest that fine and hyperfine level transitions of atoms (e.g., a hyperfine level transition in a hydrogen atomic system and a fine level transition in an alkali-metal atomic system) would be applicable to realization of such a negatively refracting atomic vapor. The attractive features of the present scenario include: i) three-dimensionally isotropic negative indices; ii) incoherent gain wave amplification in the negative-index atomic vapor; iii) tunable negative indices depending upon external fields. Such a left-handed quantum optical medium can serve as a supporting substrate for lossy negative-index materials for loss compensation. It can also be used in designing new quantum optical and photonic devices (e.g., a subwavelength focusing system and a negative-index superlens for perfect imaging) because of its attractive properties of three-dimensional isotropy and high-gain wave amplification.
A new scheme for overcoming losses with incoherent optical gain in a quantum-coherent left-handed atomic vapor is suggested. In order to obtain low-loss, lossless or active left-handed media (LHM), a pump fleld, which aims at realizing population inversion of atomic levels, is introduced into a four-level atomic system. Both analytical and numerical results are given to illustrate that such an atomic vapor can exhibit intriguing electric and magnetic responses required for achieving simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability (and hence a gain-assisted quantum-coherent negative refractive index would emerge). The quantum-coherent left-handed atomic vapor presented here could have four fascinating characteristics: i) three-dimensionally isotropic negative refractive index, ii) double- negative atomic medium at visible and infrared wavelengths, iii) high-gain optical ampliflcation, and iv) tunable negative refractive index based on quantum coherent control. Such a three-dimensionally isotropic gain medium with negative refractive index at visible and infrared frequencies would have a potential application in design of new quantum optical and photonic devices, including superlenses for perfect imaging and subwavelength focusing.
We propose a scheme of electromagnetically induced left-handedness in a dense atomic vapor medium. By applying an incoherent pump field to manipulate the populations in atomic levels, and a strong coherent field to create quantum coherence, the magnetic part of the probe field can be amplified instead of strong absorption as usual materials. The system has negative permittivity and permeability simultaneously with transparent propagation of the electric part of the probe field. It is shown that the pumping rate of incoherent field, the intensity and frequency detuning of the coherent field, exert effects on the properties of the negative refractive index of left-handed material.
A new quantum optical mechanism to realize simultaneously negative electric permittivity and magnetic permeability is suggested. In order to obtain a negative permeability, we choose a proper atomic configuration that can dramatically enhance the contribution of the magnetic-dipole allowed transition via the atomic phase coherence. It is shown that the atomic system chosen with proper optical parameters can give rise to striking electromagnetic responses (leading to a negative refractive index) and that the atomic vapour becomes a left-handed medium in an optical frequency band. Differing from the previous schemes of artificial composite metamaterials (based on classical electromagnetic theory) to achieve the left-handed materials, which consist of anisotropic millimetre-scale composite structure units, the left-handed atomic vapour presented here is isotropic and homogeneous at the atomic-scale level. Such an advantage may be valuable in realizing the superlens (and hence perfect image) with left-handed atomic vapour.