Demonstration of a high-contrast optical switching in an atomic Delta system. (31st July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ghosh, Megha; Karigowda, Asha; Jayaraman, Ayyappan; Bretenaker, Fabien; Sanders, Barry C; Narayanan, Andal
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 50:Number 16(2017:Aug. 15)
• Publication Date: 2017-07-31
• Subjects: high-contrast optical switching -- coherent atom–field interaction effects -- electromagnetically induced transparency; 37.10.Jk -- 42.50.Gy; Atoms -- Periodicals; Molecules -- Periodicals; Optics -- Periodicals; Nuclear physics -- Periodicals; 539.6
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6455/aa8014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-4075

Abstract

Abstract: We present an experimental study of a Δ system in a room temperature, dilute sample of 85 Rb atoms. A Δ system in the D2 manifold of 85 Rb is formed by connecting the two lower hyperfine energy levels of a Λ system by a microwave drive field at 3.0357 GHz. We show that when the Rabi frequency of a microwave drive field exceeds that of the optical probe field, a three-wave mixing nonlinear interaction is established. This nonlinear interaction changes the enhanced transmission of the optical probe to a deep absorption for a relative phase difference of π between all the three fields. We establish through our experiment and our numerical simulation, the phase-sensitive and nonlinear nature of the Δ system's response to the applied microwave and optical fields. Using this feature, we demonstrate a high-contrast microwave phase controlled switch for the optical probe field. In comparison with intensity and phase switching demonstrated with all-optical fields so far, our experiment opens up the possibility of obtaining the highest contrast optical switching with room temperature atoms.