Biphoton generation enhanced by nonlocal nonlinearity via Rydberg interactions.

Strongly correlated Stokes and anti-Stokes photon pairs (biphotons) exhibiting very large generation rates and spectral brightnesses could be attained at extremely low pump powers and optical depths. This is realized via spontaneous four-wave mixing in cold atoms with enhanced nonlocal (Rydberg) optical nonlinearities and prepared into a dark state with a large population imbalance. The scheme works with all light fields on resonance yet with negligible linear absorption and Raman gain.

Controlled unidirectional reflection in cold atoms via the spatial Kramers-Kronig relation.

It is known that the Kramers-Kronig (KK) relation between real and imaginary parts of the optical susceptibility in the frequency domain can also be realized in the space domain, as first proposed in [Nat. Photonics9(7), 436 (2015)10.1038/nphoton.2015.106]. We here study a mechanism to implement spatial KK relations in a cold atomic sample and use it to control unidirectional reflectionless for probe light incident from either the left or right side of the sample at will. In our model, the complex frequency dependent atomic susceptibility is mapped into a spatially dependent one, employing a far-detuned driving field of intensity linearly varied in space. The reflection of an incident light from one side of the sample can then be set to vanish over a specific frequency band directly by changing the driving field parameters, such as its intensity and frequency. Also, by incorporating the Bragg scattering into the spatial KK relation, the reflectivity from the opposite side of the sample, though typically small for realistic atomic densities, can be made to increase to improve the reflectivity contrast. The present scheme bears potentials for all-optical network applications that require controllable unidirectional light propagation.

Efficient generation of heralded narrowband color-entangled states.

We show that narrowband two-color entangled single Stokes photons can be generated in a ultra-cold atoms sample via selective excitation of two spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) processes. Under certain circumstances, the generation, heralded by the respective common anti-Stokes photon, is robust against losses and phase-mismatching and is remarkably efficient owing to balanced resonant enhancement of the two four-wave mixing processes in a regime of combined induced transparency. Maximally color-entangled states can be easily attained by adjusting the detunings of the external couplings and driving fields, even when these are quite weak.

Coherent perfect absorption in one-sided reflectionless media.

In optical experiments one-sided reflectionless (ORL) and coherent perfect absorption (CPA) are unusual scattering properties yet fascinating for their fundamental aspects and for their practical interest. Although these two concepts have so far remained separated from each other, we prove that the two phenomena are indeed strictly connected. We show that a CPA-ORL connection exists between pairs of points lying along lines close to each other in the 3D space-parameters of a realistic lossy atomic photonic crystal. The connection is expected to be a generic feature of wave scattering in non-Hermitian optical media encompassing, as a particular case, wave scattering in parity-time (PT) symmetric media.

Large phase-by-phase modulations in atomic interfaces.

Phase-resonant closed-loop optical transitions can be engineered to achieve broadly tunable light phase shifts. Such a novel phase-by-phase control mechanism does not require a cavity and is illustrated here for an atomic interface where a classical light pulse undergoes radian level phase modulations all-optically controllable over a few micron scale. It works even at low intensities and hence may be relevant to new applications of all-optical weak-light signal processing.

Non-Hermitian degeneracies and unidirectional reflectionless atomic lattices.

Light propagation in optical lattices of driven cold atoms exhibits non-Hermitian degeneracies when the first-order modulation amplitudes of real and imaginary parts of the probe susceptibility are manipulated to be balanced. At these degeneracies, one may observe complete unidirectional reflectionless light propagation. This strictly occurs with no gain and can be easily tuned and fully reversed as supported by the transfer-matrix calculations and explained via a coupled-mode analysis.

Manipulating frequency-bin entangled states in cold atoms.

Optical manipulation of entanglement harnessing the frequency degree of freedom is important for encoding of quantum information. We here devise a phase-resonant excitation mechanism of an atomic interface where full control of a narrowband single-photon two-mode frequency entangled state can be efficiently achieved. We illustrate the working physical mechanism for an interface made of cold (87)Rb atoms where entanglement is well preserved from degradation over a typical 100 µm length scale of the interface and with fractional delays of the order of unity. The scheme provides a basis for efficient multi-frequency and multi-photon entanglement, which is not easily accessible to polarization and spatial encoding.

Optical nonreciprocity of cold atom Bragg mirrors in motion.

Reciprocity is fundamental to light transport and is a concept that holds also in rather complex systems. Yet, reciprocity can be switched off even in linear, isotropic, and passive media by setting the material structure into motion. In highly dispersive multilayers this leads to a fairly large forward-backward asymmetry in the pulse transmission. Moreover, in multilevel systems, this transport phenomenon can be all-optically enhanced. For atomic multilayer structures made of three-level cold 87Rb atoms, for instance, forward-backward transmission contrast around 95% can be obtained already at atomic speeds in the meter per second range. The scheme we illustrate may open up avenues for optical isolation that were not previously accessible.

Radiation damping in atomic photonic crystals.

The force exerted on a material by an incident beam of light is dependent upon the material's velocity in the laboratory frame of reference. This velocity dependence is known to be difficult to measure, as it is proportional to the incident optical power multiplied by the ratio of the material velocity to the speed of light. Here we show that this typically tiny effect is greatly amplified in multilayer systems composed of resonantly absorbing atoms exhibiting ultranarrow photonic band gaps. The amplification effect for optically trapped 87Rb is shown to be as much as 3 orders of magnitude greater than for conventional photonic-band-gap materials. For a specific pulsed regime, damping remains observable without destroying the system and significant for material velocities of a few ms(-1).

All-optical light confinement in dynamic cavities in cold atoms.

We show how to realize in a cold atomic sample a dynamic magneto-optically controlled cavity in which a slow-light pulse can be confined and released on demand. The probe optical pulse is retrieved from the atomic spin coherence initially stored within the cavity and is subsequently confined there subject to a slow-light regime with little loss and diffusion for time intervals as long as a few hundred microseconds before being extracted from either side of the cavity. Our proof-of-principle scheme illustrates the underlying physics of this new mechanism for coherent light confinement and manipulation in cold atoms. This may ease the realization of nonlinear interactions between weak light pulses where strong atom-photon interactions are required for quantum information processing.

Coherent delocalization of atomic wave packets in driven lattice potentials.

Atomic wave packets loaded into a phase-modulated vertical optical-lattice potential exhibit a coherent delocalization dynamics arising from intraband transitions among Wannier-Stark levels. Wannier-Stark intraband transitions are here observed by monitoring the in situ wave-packet extent. By varying the modulation frequency, we find resonances at integer multiples of the Bloch frequency. The resonances show a Fourier-limited width for interrogation times up to 2 s. This can also be used to determine the gravity acceleration with ppm resolution.

Optically tunable photonic stop bands in homogeneous absorbing media.

Resonantly absorbing media supporting electromagnetically induced transparency may give rise to specific periodic patterns where a light probe is found to experience a fully developed photonic band gap yet with negligible absorption everywhere. In ultracold atomic samples the gap is found to arise from spatial regions where Autler-Townes splitting and electromagnetically induced transparency alternate with one another and detailed calculations show that accurate and efficient coherent optical control of the gap can be accomplished. The remarkable experimental simplicity of the control scheme would ease quantum nonlinear optics applications.

Resonantly absorbing one-dimensional photonic crystals.

A compact theoretical description of the effects of dissipation on the propagation of light waves through a multilayer periodic mirror built from resonant absorbing atoms is presented. Depending on the lattice periodicity, ultranarrow photonic gaps, weak polaritonic gaps, as well as rather atypical gap structures may be observed. Because of the atom's absorption line shape Bloch gap modes may acquire quite a cumbersome structure which is thoroughly studied here or which may even disappear when dissipation becomes sufficiently strong. The same approach well applies also to resonantly absorbing photonic crystals based on excitonic resonances.

Ultrafast all optical switching via tunable Fano interference.

Tunneling induced quantum interference experienced by an incident probe in asymmetric double quantum wells can easily be modulated by means of an external control light beam. This phenomenon, which is here examined within the dressed-state picture, can be exploited to devise a novel all-optical ultrafast switch. For a suitably designed semiconductor heterostructure, the switch is found to exhibit frequency bandwidths of the order of 0.1 THz and response and recovery times of about 1 ps.

Polaritonic stop-band transparency via exciton-biexciton coupling in CuCl.

Radiation is almost completely reflected within the exciton-polariton stop band of a semiconductor, as in the typical case of CuCl. We predict, however, that a coherently driven exciton-biexciton transition allows for the propagation of a probe light beam within the stop band. The phenomenon is reminiscent of electromagnetically induced transparency effects occurring in three-level atomic systems, except that it here involves delocalized electronic excitations in a crystalline structure via a frequency and wave-vector selective polaritonic mechanism. A well-developed transparency, favored by the narrow linewidth of the biexciton, is established within the stop band where a probe pulse may propagate with significant delays. The transparency window can be controlled via the pump beam detuning and intensity.

Vavilov-Cherenkov effect in a driven resonant medium.

The Vavilov-Cherenkov effect in a dispersive and resonant absorbing medium is substantially modified by the presence of an external electromagnetic field. Depending on the field parameters and configuration we anticipate a remarkable increase of the emission yield at resonance. Our predictions are implemented by numerical estimates for cuprous oxide (Cu2O) where the yield turns out to be one to two orders of magnitude that obtained in the absence of the field.

Slow group velocity and Cherenkov radiation.

We study theoretically the effect of ultraslow group velocities on the emission of Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation in a coherently driven medium. We show that in this case the aperture of the group cone on which the intensity of the radiation peaks is much smaller than that of the usual wave cone associated with the Cherenkov coherence condition. As a specific example, we consider a coherently driven ultracold atomic gas where such singular behavior may be observed.

Fresnel light drag in a coherently driven moving medium.

We theoretically study how the phase of a light plane wave propagating in a resonant medium under electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is affected by the uniform motion of the medium. For cuprous oxide (Cu2O), where EIT can be implemented through a typical pump-probe configuration, the resonant probe beam experiences a phase shift (Fresnel-Fizeau effect) that may vary over a wide range of values, positive or negative, and even vanishing, due to the combined effects of the strong frequency dispersion and anisotropy both induced by the pump. The use of such a coherently driven dragging medium may improve by at least 1 order of magnitude the sensitivity at low velocity in optical drag experiments.