Giant electro-optic effect using polarizable dark states

Abstract

The electro-optic effect, where the refractive index of a medium is modified by an electric field, is of central importance in non-linear optics, laser technology, quantum optics and optical communications. In general, electro-optic coefficients are very weak and a medium with a giant electro-optic coefficient would have profound implications for non-linear optics, especially at the single photon level, enabling single photon entanglement and switching. Here we propose and demonstrate a giant electro-optic effect based on polarizable dark states. We demonstrate phase modulation of the light field in the dark state medium and measure an electro-optic coefficient that is more than 12 orders of magnitude larger than in other gases. This enormous Kerr non-linearity also creates the potential for precision electrometry and photon entanglement.

To appear in Nature Physics

References in corpus (5)

• Evidence for coherent collective Rydberg excitation in the strong blockade regime
• Long-range interactions and entanglement of slow single-photon pulses
• Electromagnetically induced transparency of an interacting cold Rydberg ensemble
• Spectroscopy of strontium Rydberg states using electromagnetically induced transparency
• Apparatus for excitation and detection of Rydberg atoms in quantum gases

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Cooperative atom-light interaction in a blockaded Rydberg ensemble
• Laser frequency stabilization to highly excited state transitions using electromagnetically induced transparency in a cascade system
• Electromagnetically induced transparency of an interacting cold Rydberg ensemble
• Slow-light Faraday effect: an atomic probe with gigahertz bandwidth
• Narrow absorptive resonances in a four-level atomic system