Abstract
Developing exotic optical devices such as super-resolution lenses and cloaks requires atoms that interact strongly with the magnetic field of light. Such an interaction between a laser and an ensemble of europium atoms is shown for the first time.
Highlights
Optics and optical tools have played a key role in the development of the physical sciences and engineering over the past century
It is well understood that metamaterials rely critically on their ability to strongly interact with both the electric and the magnetic fields of light; i.e., both the permittivity and permeability of the material must be substantially different from their values in free space
This is a big challenge in the optical region of the spectrum since materials generally do not respond to the magnetic field of light at such high
Summary
Optics and optical tools have played a key role in the development of the physical sciences and engineering over the past century. Using electromagnetically induced transparency and related ideas, light can be slowed down, stopped, or even forced to move backward, and optical nonlinearities can be made large enough to be effective at the single-photon level [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28] These are exciting developments, it is important to note that these atomic physics experiments are not truly comparable to metamaterials work since there is negligible interaction with the magnetic field of light. Using laser excitation through a sharp atomic transition (with widths at the GHz level), our experiments show for the first time that (i) a large coherent magnetic response can be obtained from an atomic ensemble and (ii) the ensemble can have a permeability that is significantly modified compared to its free-space value These results open up the prospect of constructing lefthanded materials using atomic transitions, a different and in many ways complementary approach to existing lefthanded metamaterials
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