Dynamical Observations of Self-Stabilising Stationary Light

Abstract

Precise control of atom-light interactions is vital to many quantum information protocols. In particular, atomic systems can be used to slow and store light to form a quantum memory. Optical storage can be achieved via stopped light, where no optical energy remains in the atoms, or as stationary light, where some optical energy remains resent during storage. In this work, we demonstrate a form of self-stabilising stationary light. From any initial state, our atom-light system evolves to a stable configuration that is devoid of coherent emission from the atoms, yet may contain bright optical excitation. This phenomenon is verified experimentally in a cloud of cold Rb87 atoms. The spinwave in our atomic cloud is imaged from the side allowing direct comparison with theoretical predictions.

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Light stops at exceptional points
• Beating the Rayleigh Limit Using Two-Photon Interference
• Coherent photon manipulation in interacting atomic ensembles
• Coherent spin-wave processor of stored optical pulses
• Conditional $\pi$-Phase Shift of Single-Photon-Level Pulses at Room Temperature
• Stationary light in atomic media
• Simultaneous Trapping of Two Optical Pulses in an Atomic Ensemble as Stationary Light Pulses
• Time-reversed and coherently-enhanced memory: A single-mode quantum atom-optic memory without a cavity
• Trapping a Free-propagating Single-photon into an Atomic Ensemble as a Quantum Stationary Light Pulse
• Equilibrium states in open quantum systems
• Adiabatic soliton management: Controlling solitary wave motion while keeping the wave envelope unchanged
• Direct Imaging of Slow, Stored, and Stationary EIT Polaritons