Realization of Coherent Optically Dense Media via Buffer-Gas Cooling

Abstract

We demonstrate that buffer-gas cooling combined with laser ablation can be used to create coherent optical media with high optical depth and low Doppler broadening that offers metastable states with low collisional and motional decoherence. Demonstration of this generic technique opens pathways to coherent optics with a large variety of atoms and molecules. We use helium buffer gas to cool 87Rb atoms to below 7 K and slow atom diffusion to the walls. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in this medium allows for 50% transmission in a medium with initial OD >70 and for slow pulse propagation with large delay-bandwidth products. In the high-OD regime, we observe high-contrast spectrum oscillations due to efficient four-wave mixing.

4 pages, 4 figures. V2: modified title, abstract, introduction, conclusion; added references; improved theoretical fit in figure 3(b); shortened slow light theory description; clarified simplicity of apparatus. Final version as published in Phys. Rev. A

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• Doppler-free laser spectroscopy of buffer gas cooled molecular radicals
• Slow light propagation and amplification via electromagnetically induced transparency and four-wave mixing in an optically dense atomic vapor
• Prospects for storage and retrieval of a quantum dot single photon in an ultracold ${}^{87}$Rb ensemble
• Suppression of the four-wave mixing amplification via Raman absorption
• Suppression of Four-Wave Mixing in Hot Rubidium Vapor Using Ladder Scheme Raman Absorption
• Quantum Information Processing with Continuous Variables and Atomic Ensembles
• Phase Space Reorganization and Traveling Wave Emergence Driven by Non-Kerr Effects in Nonparaxial Optical Media