Dipole-Induced Electromagnetic Transparency

We determine the optical response of a thin and dense layer of interacting quantum emitters. We show that, in such a dense system, the Lorentz redshift and the associated interaction broadening can be used to control the transmission and reflection spectra. In the presence of overlapping resonances, a dipole-induced electromagnetic transparency (DIET) regime, similar to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), may be achieved. DIET relies on destructive interference between the electromagnetic waves emitted by quantum emitters. Carefully tuning material parameters allows us to achieve narrow transmission windows in, otherwise, completely opaque media. We analyze in detail this coherent and collective effect using a generalized Lorentz model and show how it can be controlled. Several potential applications of the phenomenon, such as slow light, are proposed.

Figure 1

Schematic view of the thin dense vapor of quantum emitters interacting with the incident field.

Figure 2

Extinction (a), transmission (b), and reflection (c) probabilities as a function of the reduced detuning for a thickness $\ell ={\lambda }_0/1.55=400\mathrm{nm}$. The decay and pure dephasing rates are ${10}^{11}$ and ${10}^{12}\mathrm{Hz}$. The solid black lines correspond to a weak density $[\mathrm{\Delta }/\gamma =0.05]$, the dashed blue lines are for an average density $[\mathrm{\Delta }/\gamma =2]$, and the dashed-dotted brown lines stand for a large density $[\mathrm{\Delta }/\gamma =18]$.

Figure 3

(a) Real part of the electric susceptibility ${\chi }_e$ calculated from our extended Lorentz model as a function of the reduced detuning, for $\mathrm{\Delta }/\gamma =18$ (large density). The reflection probability is shown in panel (b). The two dots in panel (a) indicate the frequencies at which $\text{Re}[{\chi }_e]=-1$.

Figure 4

Transmission (solid brown line) and reflection (dashed green line) probabilities (a) as a function of the detuning in the case of a dense mixture of two different quantum emitters (see text for details). The thin blue line is the transmission probability when the coupling between the two dipoles is neglected. The electric susceptibility and the refractive index are shown in panels (b) and (c).

Figure 5

Incident, transmitted, and reflected pulse spectrum in the case of a dense vapor constituted by a mixture of two different quantum emitters.