Ultra high-speed all-optical coherent memory cell

Abstract

We study the interaction of two counterpropagating unipolar video pulses of electromagnetic radiation in a dense resonant two-level medium. The pulse durations are less than one oscillation period of an atomic transition. We show that a polariton cluster (i.e. the compact long-living strongly coupled state of electromagnetic field and matter polarization) is created, when two unipolar pulses collide in a resonant medium of the frequency ω0 (the pulses correspond to self-induced transparency solitons of the same amplitudes and opposite polarities).We have studied for the first time the conditions of maximal excitation of a resonant polarization in the polariton cluster volume. We show that there exist optimal durations and amplitudes of the recording pulses. We studied the processes of double and multiple recording and erasing of an optical memory cell in a thin layer of a resonant medium (quantum dots). We demonstrated that the pulse rate of the recording-erasing pulses can reach 60 000 GHz and higher, which happens under the coherent regime of the interaction between the electromagnetic field and polarization of the medium.