Dark-state polaritons for multicomponent and stationary light fields

F. E. Zimmer, J. Otterbach, R. G. Unanyan, B. W. Shore, and M. Fleischhauer
Phys. Rev. A 77, 063823 – Published 16 June 2008

Abstract

We present a general scheme to determine the loss-free adiabatic eigensolutions (dark-state polaritons) of the interaction of multiple probe laser beams with a coherently driven atomic ensemble under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. To this end we generalize the Morris-Shore transformation to linearized Heisenberg-Langevin equations describing the coupled light-matter system in the weak excitation limit. For the simple lambda-type coupling scheme the generalized Morris-Shore transformation reproduces the dark-state polariton solutions of slow light. Here we treat a closed-loop dual-V scheme wherein two counterpropagating control fields generate a quasistationary pattern of two counterpropagating probe fields—so-called stationary light. We show that contrary to previous predictions, there exists a single unique dark-state polariton; it obeys a simple propagation equation.

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  • Received 14 December 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.063823

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. E. Zimmer

  • SUPA, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, United Kingdom

J. Otterbach, R. G. Unanyan, B. W. Shore, and M. Fleischhauer

  • Fachbereich Physik der Technischen Universität Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

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Vol. 77, Iss. 6 — June 2008

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