Information storage and retrieval by stopping pulses of light1

Abstract

Despite the importance of quantum interference and coherent population trapping to the theory of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), it is shown that the recent experiments which slow down and even stop a light pulse in a dielectric really rely on a linear, refractive index type theory. From this point of view and in considerable contrast, the experiment on degenerate self-induced transparency (SIT) done 27 years ago which slowed down an optical pulse (in principle to zero velocity) was based on an intrinsically nonlinear (soliton type) theory. In quantum mechanical terms both theories are developed at the level of expectation values only and at this level the two different theories come together in terms of the storage and retrieval of information. In the Appendix we analyse the nature of this information in terms of the quantum equations governing linear EIT and nonlinear SIT.