Correlation of phase fluctuations in electromagnetically induced transparency

Abstract

Summary form only given. The destructive quantum interference of resonantly excited transitions within a lambda-system in case of two photon resonance leads to a medium, which is coherently prepared in a superpositional dark state. The corresponding distinct enhancement of radiation transmission is well known as electromagnetically induced transparency. Interaction of quantized fields with such a medium yields a correlation of quantum phase fluctuations of the fields even for independent cw lasers. The experiments are done on the Na D/sub 1/ line by means of a temperature stabilized sodium vapor cell. One frequency component is modulated by a broad spectrum of phase fluctuations of about 50 MHz width by means of an electrooptical phase modulator driven by a noise generator. A transfer of noise to the other frequency components within a lambda- or a closed double-lambda transition scheme during transmission through the dark state medium is observed using the heterodyne spectroscopy. The verified exponential decay of the width of the beat signal in dependence on the medium optical density proofs the noise transfer and hence the correlation of phase fluctuations between the corresponding frequency components. This behaviour as well as the different limits of decay for lambda- (towards the transparency linewidth) and closed double-lambda (towards zero) scheme is in good qualitative agreement with the theory.