Phase-dependent light propagation in atomic vapors

Abstract

Light propagation in an atomic medium whose coupled electronic levels form a diamond-configuration exhibits a critical dependence on the input conditions. In particular, the relative phase of the input fields gives rise to interference phenomena in the electronic excitation whose interplay with relaxation processes determines the stationary state. We integrate numerically the Maxwell-Bloch equations and observe two metastable behaviors for the relative phase of the propagating fields corresponding to two possible interference phenomena. These phenomena are associated to separate types of response along propagation, minimize dissipation, and are due to atomic coherence. These behaviors could be studied in gases of isotopes of alkali-earth atoms with zero nuclear spin, and offer new perspectives in control techniques in quantum electronics.

16 pages, 11 figures, v2: typos corrected, v3: final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. A

References in corpus (7)

• Shaping quantum pulses of light via coherent atomic memory
• A high-accuracy optical clock via three-level coherence in neutral bosonic ${}^{88}$Sr
• Phase-dependent interaction in a 4-level atomic configuration
• Precision spectroscopy and density-dependent frequency shifts in ultracold Sr
• Quantum theory of resonantly enhanced four-wave mixing: mean-field and exact numerical solutions
• Phase correlation of laser waves with arbitrary frequency spacing
• Resonant nonlinear optics in coherently prepared media: full analytic solutions

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• Transfer and evolution of structured polarization in a double-V atomic system
• Atomic-optical interferometry in fractured loops: a general solution for Rydberg radio frequency receivers
• Creating a switchable optical cavity with controllable quantum-state mapping between two modes
• Sub-wavelength position measurements with running wave driving fields