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arXiv:quant-ph/0204173 · Journal of Optics B Quantum and Semiclassical Optics

Electromagnetically induced transparency and reduced speeds for single photons in a fully quantized model

Thomas Purdy, Martin Ligare

Published May 28, 2003• 8 citations
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Abstract

We introduce a simple model for electromagnetically induced transparency in which all fields are treated quantum mechanically. We study a system of three separated atoms at fixed positions in a one-dimensional multimode optical cavity. The first atom serves as the source for a single spontaneously emitted photon; the photon scatters from a three-level Lambda-configuration atom which interacts with a single-mode field coupling two of the atomic levels; the third atom serves as a detector of the total transmitted field. We find an analytical solution for the quantum dynamics. From the quantum amplitude describing the excitation of the detector atom we extract information that provides exact single-photon analogs to wave delays predicted by semi-classical theories. We also find complementary information in the expectation value of the electric field intensity operator.

DOI
10.1088/1464-4266/5/3/315

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American Journal of Physics•Jan 1, 2002•21 citations
We introduce a simple model for electromagnetically induced transparency in which all fields are treated quantum mechanically. We study a system of three separated atoms at fixed positions in a one-dimensional multimode optical cavity. The first atom serves as the source for a single spontaneously emitted photon; the photon scatters from a three-level Lambda-configuration atom which interacts with a single-mode field coupling two of the atomic levels; the third atom serves as a detector of the total transmitted field. We find an analytical solution for the quantum dynamics. From the quantum amplitude describing the excitation of the detector atom we extract information that provides exact single-photon analogs to wave delays predicted by semi-classical theories. We also find complementary information in the expectation value of the electric field intensity operator.
Systems of interacting classical harmonic oscillators have received considerable attention in the past years as analog models for describing electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and associated phenomena. We review these models and investigate their validity for a variety of physical systems using two and three coupled harmonic oscillators. From the simplest EIT-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ configuration and two coupled single cavity modes we show that each atomic dipole-allowed transition and a single cavity mode can be represented by a damped harmonic oscillator. Thus, we have established a one-to-one correspondence between the classical and quantum dynamical variables. We show the limiting conditions and the equivalent for the EIT dark state in the mechanical system. This correspondence is extended to other systems that present EIT-related phenomena. Examples of such systems are two- and three-level (cavity EIT) atoms interacting with a single mode of an optical cavity and four-level atoms in a inverted-Y and tripod configurations. The established equivalence between the mechanical and the cavity EIT systems has been corroborated by experimental data. The analysis of the probe response of all these systems also brings to light a physical interpretation for the expectation value of the photon annihilation operator $\ensuremath{\langle}a\ensuremath{\rangle}$. We show that it can be directly related to the electric susceptibility of systems, the composition of which includes a driven cavity-field mode.
Semi-quantum or full-quantum electromagnetically induced transparency has been fully studied for three-level atoms in a weak field approximation method, where probe field is very wea ker than the coupling field. The weak field approximation is no t valid in full-quantum model where the number of coupling photons is not so large. In the present article, the master equations for the interaction of two-mode photons with a three-level Λ -type atom are exactly solved and the exact dispersion and absorption spectra for the probe beam photons are also obtained analytically. The results of the exact scheme are compared with the corresponding results in the weak field approximation method in full-quantum and semi-classi cal models.
The appearance of quantum interference in the microscopic world is one of the deepest mysteries at the very root of quantum mechanics. When light interacts with atoms, it can induce transitions by way of distinct but indistinguishable pathways and yield unexpected and often counter-intuitive results. Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), Coherent Population Trapping (CPT), and Lasing Without Inversion (LWI) are modern examples of phenomena where the traditional rules that govern absorption and dispersion undergo major revisions. Spectacular consequences of this new state of affairs include the ability of a light beam to propagate through a normally absorbing medium with little or no absorption, or to undergo amplification even if the active medium is not prepared in a state of population inversion. Light signals have been shown to travel with strongly subluminal group velocities of only a handful of meters per second and, even, to propagate at speed greater than the ordinary speed of light, but without violation of causality or of the established rules that control the transfer of optical information through space. Three-level atoms can interact with two coherent electromagnetic fields according to three different systems, known as Cascade, Lambda and Vee systems. The propagation of a weak probe field can be deeply affected by the presence of a second stronger beam, the so-called coupling field. Transparency windows, splitting of emission and absorption lines and enormously enhanced dispersion have been documented in numerous experiments. In this thesis we explore the physical origin of the transparency induced in these systems by the simultaneous interplay of the coupling and probe fields. We focus our attention on the Cascade system and study its two configurations, Cascade-EIT and Cascade-AT. We develop a variety of complementary approaches for the description of these two configurations, some semiclassical and others fully quantum mechanical. We prove the existence of quantum interference in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and also the surprising absence of interference in a closely related phenomenon, known as the Autler-Townes effect. Finally we complement the traditional machinery of theoretical quantum optics with techniques borrowed from quantum scattering theory, and offer what we believe is the most convincing physical evidence for the appearance, or for the absence, of quantum interference effects.
Abstract We investigate the single-photon transport properties in a hybrid waveguide quantum electrodynamics system, in which a one-dimensional waveguide is simultaneously coupled to a cavity and a driven Λ-type three-level atom. The cavity and the atom are also coupled to each other. We show that when the waveguide is coupled to the cavity and the atom at the same point, double electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) can be observed from the system. The physical mechanism of the double EIT effect has been given by setting up the eigenstate structure for the whole system. When the waveguide is coupled to the cavity and the atom at different points, we demonstrate that the single-photon transmission spectra can be effectively controlled by adjusting the relative separation between the cavity and the atom. Moreover, this non-zero relative separation can lead to the occurrence of the controllable nonreciprocal scattering effect. These results have potential applications in realization of photonic coherent control.
We examine the field-field and field-atom entanglements generated by \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type three-level atoms placed in an optical cavity driven above threshold by two coherent input optical fields. It is shown that under realistic experimental conditions entanglement between the two output cavity fields as well as between the fields and the atoms can be achieved when the two cavity fields are both one- and two-photon (Raman) resonant with the atomic transitions, as in the configuration for electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The entanglement has similar features to pump-signal-idler three-color entanglement in an above-threshold optical parametric oscillator [Villar et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 140504 (2006)]. This cavity-enhanced atom-field cooperative coupling could enable convenient and efficient generation of bright, nondegenerate, narrow-band entangled fields, which may find potential applications in realistic quantum communications and networking protocols.
We calculate spatial localization and phase properties of spontaneously emitted photons. Our model is simple yet fully quantized: the emitting atom is a two-level atom located in a one-dimensional multimode optical cavity. Although the photon state vector does not have a position-space representation, the expectation value of the square of the electric field operator (intensity) is spatially localized and this pattern shifts at the speed of light. The emitted photon exhibits classical-like phase properties in the intensity expectation value when it “interferes with itself” after reflection. The phase properties of the emitted radiation are also evident at times sufficiently long for the radiation to have returned to the emitting atom before the decay of excited atomic state is complete.