Controlled light-pulse propagation via dynamically induced double photonic band gaps

Ren-Gang Wan,Jun Kou,Jin-Yue Gao,Li Jiang,Shang-Qi Kuang

doi:10.1364/oe.18.015591

Abstract

We analyze the optical response of a standing-wave driven four-level atomic system with double dark resonances. Fully developed double photonic band gaps arise as a result of periodically modulated refractive index within the two electromagnetically induced transparency widows. We anticipate that the dynamically induced band gaps can be used to coherently control the propagation of light-pulses with different center frequencies and may have applications in all-optical switching and routing for quantum information networks.

Highlights

The phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [1,2], which based on the laser induced atomic coherence, plays an important role in the interaction between light and matter and has found numerous applications in light propagation control [3,4], light storage [5], enhancement of nonlinearity at low light levels [6], etc
As the single dark state is coherently coupled to another level by a control field, double dark resonances arise and the atom exhibits two EIT windows [16,17]
As pointed out by Lukin et al [16], the coherent interaction between the single dark state and the control field leads to the emergence of double dark resonances at the frequencies

Summary

Introduction

The phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [1,2], which based on the laser induced atomic coherence, plays an important role in the interaction between light and matter and has found numerous applications in light propagation control [3,4], light storage [5], enhancement of nonlinearity at low light levels [6], etc. When the coupling field has a standing-wave (SW) pattern, the optical response of the probe is modulated periodically in the space This has been explored to obtain photonic band gap (PBG) [7,8,9], to generate stationary light pulse [10], to enhance optical nonlinearity [11], to realize deterministic quantum logic [12], and to devise optical cavity [13], etc. The interferences between the dark resonances allow us to well manipulate the optical responses of atoms [18,19,20] Inspired by these studies, we here demonstrate a coherent control of light-pulse propagation via induced double PBGs in a SW driven double-dark-resonance system.

Theoretical model

Numerical results

Findings

Conclusion