Coherent Manipulation and storage of light in three-level atomic media

Jérôme J.-P. Leon

G. G. Grigoryan, V. O. Chaltykyan, E. A. Gazazyan +2 more

We consider adiabatic interaction of five-level atomic systems and their media with four short laser pulses under the condition of all two-photon detunings being zero. We derive analytical expressions for eigenvalues of the system's Hamiltonian and determine conditions of adiabaticity for both the atom and the medium. We analyze, in detail, the system's behavior when the eigenvalue with nonvanishing energy is realized. As distinct from the usual dark state of a five-level system (corresponding to zero eigenvalue), which is a superposition of three states, in our case the superposition of four states does work. We demonstrate that this seemingly unfavorable case nevertheless completely imitates a three-level system not only for a single atom but also in the medium, since the propagation equations are also split into those for three- and two-level media separately. We show that, under certain conditions, all the coherent effects observed in three-level media, such as population transfer, light slowing, light storage, and so on, may efficiently be realized in five-level media. This has an important advantage that the light storage can be performed twice in the same medium; i.e., the second pulse can be stored without retrieving the first one, and then the two pulses can be retrieved in any desired sequence.

Subhadeep Gupta, A. E. Leanhardt, Alexander D. Cronin +1 more

Iqbal Hussain, Asghar Ali, Nassir Saad Alarifi +2 more

J. Cviklinski, J. Ortalo, Vincent Josse +4 more

Storage and read-out of non classical states of light is a critical element for quantum information networks. Simultaneous storage of two non-commuting variables carried by light and subsequent read-out is shown to be possible in atomic ensembles. Interaction of light fields with three-level systems allows direct mapping the quantum state of light into long lived coherences in the atomic ground state. We show that excess noise linked to atomic transitions can be made negligible. Experimental developments are discussed for atomic vapours and cold atoms.

A. Raczyński, J. Zaremba, S. Zielińska-Kaniasty