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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters

Dynamic Population Difference Gratings and Microcavities Induced by Extremely Short Pulses: Recent Advances and Future Prospects (Brief Review)

Rostislav M. Arkhipov, O. O. Diachkova, M. V. Arkhipov, A. V. Pakhomov, Nikolay N. Rosanov

Published Mar 24, 2025• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This review highlights recent advances in the creation of atomic population gratings using multi-cycle and extremely short light pulses in a medium. The application of these structures in transient grating spectroscopy is discussed. Special attention is given to the formation of high-quality dynamic microcavities, a novel type of structure recently predicted by the authors, which arises from collisions of extremely short half-cycle pulses within a medium. The results demonstrate the potential for attosecond optical switching of matter states at petahertz frequencies, operating within extreme time scales of half a field oscillation cycle. These findings pave the way for groundbreaking applications in modern ultrafast optics, including petahertz-scale signal processing, attosecond coherent control, and the development of next-generation optical technologies operating at the fundamental limits of speed and precision.

DOI
10.1134/s002136402560569x

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This review highlights recent advances in the creation of atomic population gratings using multi-cycle and extremely short light pulses in a medium. The application of these structures in transient grating spectroscopy is discussed. Special attention is given to the formation of high-quality dynamic microcavities, a novel type of structure recently predicted by the authors, which arises from collisions of extremely short half-cycle pulses within a medium. The results demonstrate the potential for attosecond optical switching of matter states at petahertz frequencies, operating within extreme time scales of half a field oscillation cycle. These findings pave the way for groundbreaking applications in modern ultrafast optics, including petahertz-scale signal processing, attosecond coherent control, and the development of next-generation optical technologies operating at the fundamental limits of speed and precision.
The coherent interaction of extremely short light pulses with a resonant medium can result in the formation of population difference gratings. Such gratings have been created by pulses that are π/2 or smaller. This paper demonstrates that a microcavity with Bragg-like mirrors can be formed by colliding two single-cycle attosecond self-induced transparency pulses in the center of a two-level medium. The parameters of this structure can be quickly adjusted by increasing the number of collisions, which showcases the ability to control the dynamic properties of the medium on a sub-cycle time scale by using attosecond pulses.
Recently, the possibility of the generation and interaction of unipolar half-cycle electromagnetic pulses with quantum systems has been the subject of active research. Such pulses can find many different and interesting applications. They are able to excite quantum systems very fast. Based on the numerical solution of Maxwell-Bloch equations, this paper studies theoretically the possibility of guiding and ultrafast controlling population difference gratings by a sequence of half-cycle attosecond pulses in a three-level resonant medium. The parameters of the model medium (transition frequencies and transition dipole moments) match those in a hydrogen atom. We show the possibility of guiding periodic gratings and dynamic microcavities on different resonant transitions in the medium. We also consider the superradiance of polarization waves and atomic gratings produced by half-cycle pulses.
An optical Bragg-like microcavity can be formed when extremely short light pulses interacting coherently with the medium collide in the resonant medium. Here we present an analytical approach, based on the approximate solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, that reveals both the cavity formation and its control by the half-cycle pulses colliding in the medium. This approach allows the calculation of cavity properties in the weak-field regime without the need for complex numerical simulations. Beyond the approximate analytical solutions, our analytical results are confirmed by numerical simulations of the Maxwell-Bloch equations. Grating formation is also studied in the strong-field regime, where collisions of self-induced transparency half-cycle pulses occur. The results presented here reveal, to our knowledge, a new type of spatio-temporal photonic crystal in the form of micro-cavities in a simple atomic medium. The results obtained demonstrate the feasibility of attosecond optical switching in a simple atomic medium with half-cycle pulses.
Recently, the possibility of the generation and interaction of unipolar half-cycle electromagnetic pulses with quantum systems has been the subject of active research. Such pulses can have many different and interesting applications. They are able to excite quantum systems very fast. Based on the numerical solution of Maxwell-Bloch equations, this paper theoretically studies the possibility of guiding and ultrafast controlling population difference gratings by a sequence of half-cycle attosecond pulses in a three-level resonant medium. The parameters of the model medium (transition frequencies and dipole moments of the transitions) are close to those found in the hydrogen atom. We show the possibility of guiding periodic gratings and dynamic microcavities on different resonance transitions of the medium. In this case, the medium considered is an example of a spatiotemporal photonic crystal. The refractive index varies rapidly in space and time. The possibility of the use of such gratings as Bragg mirrors in ultrafast optics is discussed. The results obtained are of interest in two actively developing areas of modern optics - the physics of half-cycle pulses and space-time photonic crystals.
Half-cycle attosecond pulses formed from an electromagnetic field half-wave have the shortest duration in a given spectral interval. When these pulses interact coherently with the medium, new types of spatial structures of population inversion may emerge on each resonant transition. Based on numerical calculations, we examine the possibility of ultrafast control of these structures, such as microcavities, in an asymmetric collision of half-cycle pulses in a medium. We demonstrate that it is possible to create dynamic microcavities with controlled parameters, as well as divide the medium into different regions of near-constant population inversion. The selectivity effect is observed, with deeper structures formed on one transition than another, highlighting the possibility of fine-tuning these processes. The results show that time-dependent media could be realized in a conventional resonant medium with discrete energy levels using half-cycle pulses.
Abstract In a fixed spectral range, single- and half-cycle electromagnetic pulses have the shortest duration. Half-cycle pulses are promising tools for ultrafast control of quantum systems. Previously, the possibility of using a sequence of single- and half-cycle attosecond pulses to generate and ultrafast control light-induced population difference gratings has been demonstrated. However, such studies have been carried out using different approximations, such as the sudden perturbation theory and the two-level model for the resonant medium. In this paper, based on the numerical solution of constitutive equations for elements of the density matrix and wave equation it is shown that it is possible to generate and control population gratings in a three-level medium without using the approximation of sudden perturbations used in previous studies. It is shown that taking into account the additional level of the medium does not lead to a violation of the effect of generating such gratings. This extends the applicability of previous results.