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Optics Express

Simultaneous three-wave and six-wave mixing of microwave and optical fields in an atomic medium

K. N. Pradosh, J. K. Saaswath, Andal Narayanan

Published Apr 28, 2023• 4 citations

Abstract

Rb atoms. The nonlinear processes are induced using three hyperfine levels in the D1 manifold, which cyclically interact with pump optical fields and an idler microwave field. The simultaneous appearance of TWM and SWM signals in discrete frequency channels is made possible by breaking the three-photon resonance condition. This gives rise to coherent population oscillations (CPO), which are observed experimentally. We explain through our theoretical model the role of CPO in the generation of the SWM signal and its enhancement due to parametric coupling with the input seed field in contrast to the TWM signal. Our experiment proves that a single tone microwave can be converted to multiple optical frequency channels. The simultaneous existence of TWM and SWM processes can potentially enable various types of amplification to be achieved with a single neutral atom transducer platform.

DOI: 10.1364/oe.488060

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Rb atoms. The nonlinear processes are induced using three hyperfine levels in the D1 manifold, which cyclically interact with pump optical fields and an idler microwave field. The simultaneous appearance of TWM and SWM signals in discrete frequency channels is made possible by breaking the three-photon resonance condition. This gives rise to coherent population oscillations (CPO), which are observed experimentally. We explain through our theoretical model the role of CPO in the generation of the SWM signal and its enhancement due to parametric coupling with the input seed field in contrast to the TWM signal. Our experiment proves that a single tone microwave can be converted to multiple optical frequency channels. The simultaneous existence of TWM and SWM processes can potentially enable various types of amplification to be achieved with a single neutral atom transducer platform.

Rb atoms possessing ground-state coherence. Our novelty is in achieving significant optical PSA by manipulating the intensity and phase of a frequency-separated microwave field. PSA is obtained by inducing a three-wave mixing nonlinear process utilising a three-level cyclic scheme in the D1 manifold. We achieve a near-ideal PSA with a gain of 7 dB over a range of 500 kHz bandwidth with very low pump-field intensities and with low optical depths. Such a hybrid, ground-state-coherence-assisted PSA is the first such demonstration using atomic ensembles.

Two doubly dressing (parallel and nested processes) schemes are considered which generate co-existing four-wave mixing (FWM), six-wave mixing (SWM) and eight-wave mixing (EWM) processes in an open five-level atomic system. The coherent interaction between two dressing processes in nested type is much stronger than that in parallel type. The singly enhanced SWM and dually enhanced FWM channels can be opened at the same time. Such dramatic enhancements in high-order nonlinear optical processes result from the constructive interactions of double dark resonances. The giant third-, fifth- and seventh-order nonlinear responses with different signs can be obtained by using the coherent phase controls of the polarization beats between the FWM, SWM and EWM signals.

We demonstrate efficient energy exchange during propagation between four-wave-mixing (FWM) and six-wave-mixing (SWM) signals generated in a four-level inverted-Y atomic system, which fall in the electromagnetically induced transparency window. After an initial growth distance for both FWM and SWM fields in the atomic medium, these two nonlinear optical processes compete and exchange energy between them, and eventually reach their respective steady-state values at long interaction distance. This energy exchange phenomenon can be explained by considering established atomic coherences among various atomic states and quantum interferences between three-photon and five-photon excitation pathways. Understanding these high-order nonlinear optical processes and interplays between them can be very important for correlated FWM (or SWM) photon-pair generations and quantum information processing.

In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a novel nondestructive optical detection method by coherently exciting and controlling the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-assisted six-wave mixing (SWM) process of S state Rydberg atoms in 85Rb vapour. By analysing the evolution regularity of the resonant SWM signals under various conditions, one can control the signal by altering the atom density and detuning and the strengths of the probe and coupling fields. The characteristics of this SWM process provide a potential application for spectroscopy physics and determining the interactions between optical fields and atoms.

Using phase control between four-wave mixing (FWM) and six-wave mixing (SWM) channels in a four-level atomic system, we demonstrate temporal and spatial interferences between these two nonlinear optical processes. Efficient and coexisting FWM and SWM signals are produced in the same electromagnetically induced transparency window via atomic coherence. The temporal interference has a femtosecond time scale corresponding to the optical transition frequency. Such studies of intermixing between different order nonlinear optical processes with a controllable phase delay can have important applications in high-precision measurements, coherence quantum control, and quantum information processing.