Sensitivity of electromagnetically induced transparency to light-mediated interactions

Abstract

Here we present a microscopic model that describes the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) phenomenon in the multiple scattering regime. We consider an ensemble of cold three-level atoms, in a $\Lambda$ configuration, scattering a probe and a control field to the vacuum modes of the electromagnetic field. By first considering a scalar description of the scattering, we show that the light-mediated long-range interactions that emerge between the dipoles narrow the EIT transparency window for increasing densities and sample sizes. For a vectorial description, we demonstrate that near-field interacting terms can critically affect the atomic population transfer in the Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). This result points out that standard STIRAP-based quantum memories in cold atomic ensembles would not reach high enough efficiencies for quantum information processing applications even in dilute regimes.

9 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (12)

• Cooperative atom-light interaction in a blockaded Rydberg ensemble
• A Single-Atom Quantum Memory
• Universal Approach to Optimal Photon Storage in Atomic Media
• Efficient quantum memory for single photon polarization qubits
• Roadmap on STIRAP applications
• Cooperativity in light scattering by cold atoms
• Electromagnetically induced transparency of an interacting cold Rydberg ensemble
• Single-Photon Superradiance in Cold Atoms
• Subradiance of multilevel fermionic atoms in arrays with filling $n\ge 2$
• Comparison of three approaches to light scattering by dilute cold atomic ensembles
• The Atomic Lighthouse Effect
• Transport of light through a dense ensemble of cold atoms in a static electric field

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The Quantum Internet: A Hardware Review
• Resonant Dipole-Dipole Interactions in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Fundamental trade-off between the speed of light and the Fano factor of photon current in three-level lambda systems
• Quantum Limits to Linewidth Narrowing in Single- and Few-Atom Cavity Electromagnetically Induced Transparency