Electromagnetically induced optical anisotropy of an ultracold atomic medium

Abstract

We consider radiative transport in ultracold atomic systems under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. We calculate the macroscopic susceptibility and scattering tensors of the light and show that essential anisotropic optical properties such as dichroism and birefringence naturally appear. In such a case, light propagation through a spatially nonhomogeneous atomic cloud is considered for an arbitrary direction of the probe light. We determine the polarization properties of the coherently transmitted probe light as well as the polarization dependence of light incoherently scattered in an arbitrary direction. Both the steady state regime and time-dependent case are discussed. Concrete calculations are performed for the case of an inhomogeneous and ultracold sample of $^{87}\text{R}\text{b}$ atoms.