Coherent and Dynamic Beam Splitting based on Light Storage in Cold Atoms
arXiv:1607.01849 · doi:10.1038/srep34279
Abstract
We demonstrate a coherent and dynamic beam splitter based on light storage in cold atoms. An input weak laser pulse is first stored in a cold atom ensemble via electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). A set of counter-propagating control fields, applied at a later time, retrieves the stored pulse into two output spatial modes. The high visibility interference between the two output pulses clearly demonstrates that the beam splitting process is coherent. Furthermore, by manipulating the control lasers, it is possible to dynamically control the storage time, the power splitting ratio, the relative phase, and the optical frequencies of the output pulses. The active beam splitter demonstrated in this work is expected to significantly reduce the resource requirement in photonic quantum information and in all-optical information processing as a single cold atom ensemble can functionally replace a variety of optical elements, including beam splitters, mirrors, phase shifters, and optical quantum memories.
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Cited by in corpus (5)
- Stationary light in atomic media
- Memory-based optical polarization conversion in a double-Λ atomic system with degenerate Zeeman states
- Theoretical study on memory-based optical converter with degenerate Zeeman states
- Controlled Displacement of Stored Light at Room Temperature
- Manipulation of quantum states in memory cell: controllable Mach-Zehnder interferometer