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arXiv:quant-ph/0001058 · APS Texas Sections Spring Meeting Abstracts

Freezing Light via Atomic Coherence

Yuri V. Rostovtsev, Olga A. Kocharovskaya, Marlan O. Scully, O Marlan

Published Jan 17, 2000• 1 citation
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Abstract

As has been shown in recent Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) experiments a coherently prepared atomic media can be used to slow the group velocity of light to 10's of meters per second. We here prove by direct calculation that it should be possible to freeze the laser pulse, i.e. to bring it to a full stop, by choosing the experimental parameters properly.

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We suggest that a very significant reduction in the group velocity of light occurs in a laser induced barrier-hopping process, known as “Laser Catalysis.” In this process a system is made to hop over a potential barrier via a virtual transition to an excited bound state. As in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), the light absorption is predicted to dip to zero at a certain frequency, thereby also changing the refractive index, inducing in turn the slowing down of the group velocity of the light. In contrast to EIT, a single pulse is predicted to induce its own transparency and in contrast to self-induced transparency the process is predicted to be insensitive to the pulse area (as long as the pulse is intense enough to meet the adiabaticity criterion). Thus, the medium becomes transparent to the light, as the laser induced barrier-hopping process brings about a fundamental change in the medium.

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We show that the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) is possible in a medium exhibiting Rydberg excitons and indicate the realistic parameters to perform the experiment. The calculations for a Cu$_2$O crystal are given which show that in this medium due to large group index one could expect slowing down a light pulse by a factor about $10^4$.

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First observation of ultraslow group velocity of light in a solid

Alexey V. Turukhin, Venkatapura S. Sudarshanam, M. S. Shahriar +2 more

Summary form only given. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has been the subject of many experimental and theoretical studies over recent years. Most recently, substantial experimental and theoretical work in this area has been focused on the use of EIT to give ultraslow group velocities for light in both ultracold atomic gas and hot atomic vapors. Much of this interest is based on the fact that slowing the group velocity of a laser pulse down to the speed of sound in the same material can produce strong coupling between acoustic waves and the electromagnetic field. It has been suggested that a giant nonlinearity obtained by this method might be utilized for efficient multi-wave mixing and quantum nondemolition measurements. Slow light might also allow a very efficient nonlinear interaction between laser pulses of extremely low (down to a single photon) energies. Here, we report the first direct observation of an ultraslow group velocity of light down to 45 m/s in a solid, well below the speed of sound in the medium. This group velocity is fundamentally limited only by the inhomogeneous broadening of the ground state transition. At low coupling beam intensities, the fraction of centers that are pumped into the "dark state" increases with coupling laser power, so that the observed group delay is increasing with coupling beam intensity. At higher intensities, power broadening reduces the sharpness of the dispersive feature and the observed group delay decreases.

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From refractive index to stopped light

Jarosław Zaremba

Investigations of controlled modifications of dispersive properties of atomic media and of propagation of short laser pulses have recently become a dynamically developing field of theoretical and experimental researches. In this lecture a brief overview is presented of basic physical phenomena underlying modifications of a group velocity of a pulse propagating in an optically modified medium. In particular, the possibilities of slowing down this velocity to zero and of retrieving the stopped pulse are discussed.

ICTON Mediterranean Winter Conference (ICTON-MW)•Dec 1, 2009•0 citations
As has been shown in recent Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) experiments a coherently prepared atomic media can be used to slow the group velocity of light to 10's of meters per second. We here prove by direct calculation that it should be possible to freeze the laser pulse, i.e. to bring it to a full stop, by choosing the experimental parameters properly.
We prove that it is possible to freeze a light pulse (i.e., to bring it to a full stop) or even to make its group velocity negative in a coherently driven Doppler broadened atomic medium via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). This remarkable phenomenon of the ultraslow EIT polariton is based on the spatial dispersion of the refraction index n(omega,k), i.e., its wave number dependence, which is due to atomic motion and provides a negative contribution to the group velocity. This is related to, but qualitatively different from, the recently observed light slowing caused by large temporal (frequency) dispersion.
We suggest that a very significant reduction in the group velocity of light occurs in a laser induced barrier-hopping process, known as “Laser Catalysis.” In this process a system is made to hop over a potential barrier via a virtual transition to an excited bound state. As in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), the light absorption is predicted to dip to zero at a certain frequency, thereby also changing the refractive index, inducing in turn the slowing down of the group velocity of the light. In contrast to EIT, a single pulse is predicted to induce its own transparency and in contrast to self-induced transparency the process is predicted to be insensitive to the pulse area (as long as the pulse is intense enough to meet the adiabaticity criterion). Thus, the medium becomes transparent to the light, as the laser induced barrier-hopping process brings about a fundamental change in the medium.
We show that the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) is possible in a medium exhibiting Rydberg excitons and indicate the realistic parameters to perform the experiment. The calculations for a Cu2_22​O crystal are given which show that in this medium due to large group index one could expect slowing down a light pulse by a factor about 10410^4104.
Summary form only given. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has been the subject of many experimental and theoretical studies over recent years. Most recently, substantial experimental and theoretical work in this area has been focused on the use of EIT to give ultraslow group velocities for light in both ultracold atomic gas and hot atomic vapors. Much of this interest is based on the fact that slowing the group velocity of a laser pulse down to the speed of sound in the same material can produce strong coupling between acoustic waves and the electromagnetic field. It has been suggested that a giant nonlinearity obtained by this method might be utilized for efficient multi-wave mixing and quantum nondemolition measurements. Slow light might also allow a very efficient nonlinear interaction between laser pulses of extremely low (down to a single photon) energies. Here, we report the first direct observation of an ultraslow group velocity of light down to 45 m/s in a solid, well below the speed of sound in the medium. This group velocity is fundamentally limited only by the inhomogeneous broadening of the ground state transition. At low coupling beam intensities, the fraction of centers that are pumped into the "dark state" increases with coupling laser power, so that the observed group delay is increasing with coupling beam intensity. At higher intensities, power broadening reduces the sharpness of the dispersive feature and the observed group delay decreases.
Investigations of controlled modifications of dispersive properties of atomic media and of propagation of short laser pulses have recently become a dynamically developing field of theoretical and experimental researches. In this lecture a brief overview is presented of basic physical phenomena underlying modifications of a group velocity of a pulse propagating in an optically modified medium. In particular, the possibilities of slowing down this velocity to zero and of retrieving the stopped pulse are discussed.