Elimination of optical self-focusing by population trapping

Suppression of Nonlinear Optical Rogue Wave Formation Using Polarization-Structured Beams

A nonlinear self-focusing material can amplify random small-amplitude phase modulations present in an optical beam, leading to the formation of amplitude singularities commonly referred to as optical caustics. By imposing polarization structuring on the beam, we demonstrate the suppression of amplitude singularities caused by nonlinear self-phase modulation. Our results are the first to indicate that polarization-structured beams can suppress nonlinear caustic formation in a saturable self-focusing medium and add to the growing understanding of catastrophic self-focusing effects in beams containing polarization structure.

Processing light with an optically tunable mechanical memory

Mechanical systems are one of the promising platforms for classical and quantum information processing and are already widely-used in electronics and photonics. Cavity optomechanics offers many new possibilities for information processing using mechanical degrees of freedom; one of them is storing optical signals in long-lived mechanical vibrations by means of optomechanically induced transparency. However, the memory storage time is limited by intrinsic mechanical dissipation. More over, in-situ control and manipulation of the stored signals processing has not been demonstrated. Here, we address both of these limitations using a multi-mode cavity optomechanical memory. An additional optical field coupled to the memory modifies its dynamics through time-varying parametric feedback. We demonstrate that this can extend the memory decay time by an order of magnitude, decrease its effective mechanical dissipation rate by two orders of magnitude, and deterministically shift the phase of a stored field by over 2π. This further expands the information processing toolkit provided by cavity optomechanics.

Colossal Kerr nonlinearity based on electromagnetically induced transparency in a five-level double-ladder atomic system

The paper is aimed at modeling the enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in a five-level double-ladder-type atomic system based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) by using the semi-classical density matrix method. We present an analytical model to explain the origin of Kerr nonlinearity enhancement. The scheme also results in a several orders of magnitude increase in the Kerr nonlinearity in comparison with the well-known four- and three-level atomic systems. In addition to the steady-state case, the time-dependent Kerr nonlinearity and the switching feature of EIT-based colossal Kerr nonlinearity is investigated for the proposed system.

Storage and retrieval of multimode transverse images in hot atomic Rubidium vapor

We report on the experimental realization of the storage of images in a hot vapor of Rubidium atoms. The images are stored in and retrieved from the long-lived ground state atomic coherences. We show that an image impressed onto a 500 ns pulse can be stored and retrieved up to 30 mus later. The image storage is made robust to diffusion by storing the Fourier transform of the image.

All-optical delay of images using slow light

Two-dimensional images carried by optical pulses (2 ns) are delayed by up to 10 ns in a 10 cm cesium vapor cell. By interfering the delayed images with a local oscillator, the transverse phase and amplitude profiles of the images are shown to be preserved. It is further shown that delayed images can be well preserved even at very low light levels, where each pulse contains on average less than one photon.

Slow-light six-wave mixing at low light intensities

We report an experimental study of resonant six-wave mixing in coherently prepared Rb atoms. Electromagnetically induced transparency in a four-level atomic system suppresses the linear susceptibility and enhances the nonlinear susceptibilities, which leads to the resonantly enhanced, slow-photon six-wave mixing at low light intensities. The light emission in the six-wave mixing process can be viewed as resulting from diffraction of slow light off a resonant nonlinear grating induced in the four-level system by a standing-wave pump field.

Efficient hyper-Raman scattering in resonant coherent media

We propose and analyze a hyper-Raman scheme for generation of coherent light in a five-level atomic system based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We show that EIT suppresses linear and nonlinear photon absorption and enables the hyper-Raman process to proceed through real, near-resonant intermediate states. The scheme greatly enhances hyper-Raman efficiency and may be used for generating short-wavelength radiation at low pump intensities.

Enhanced Kerr nonlinearity via atomic coherence in a three-level atomic system

We measure the Kerr-nonlinear index of refraction of a three-level Lambda-type atomic system inside an optical ring cavity. The Kerr nonlinearity is modified and greatly enhanced near atomic resonant conditions for both probe and coupling beams. The Kerr nonlinear coefficient n(2) changes sign when the coupling beam frequency detuning switches sign, which can lead to interesting applications in optical devices such as all-optical switches.

Efficient nonlinear frequency conversion in an all-resonant double- lambda system

We demonstrate efficient, pulsed, gas-phase, nonlinear frequency conversion in a quadruply resonant, double- Lambda system and, simultaneously, verify theoretical predictions of Rabi-frequency matching unique to absorbing nonlinear media. This system is used to up-convert ultraviolet light at 233 nm to the vacuum ultraviolet at 186 nm in atomic Pb vapor with small-signal conversion efficiencies exceeding 30% and with modest atomic density-length (NL) products (scale 10(14) cm(-2)) and optical power densities (10-100 kW/cm(2)).

Efficient gas-phase generation of coherent vacuum ultraviolet radiation

We report the demonstration of a pulsed atomic lead (Pb) vapor-based vacuum ultraviolet frequency converter from 233 to 186 nm with unity photon-conversion efficiency. This conversion is attained without phase matching.

Distortion-free gain and noise correlation in sodium vapor with four-wave mixing and coherent population trapping

We observed optical gain as great as 30 with nearly distortion-free beam propagation in optically dense sodium vapor, using four-wave mixing. Moreover, 15-dB classical noise correlations were seen in the amplified probe and conjugate beams. To achieve this performance in such a strongly absorbing medium, one must suppress unwanted absorption and self-focusing effects. This is accomplished with coherent population trapping.

Optical parametric oscillators pumped by population-trapped atoms

We describe an optical parametric oscillator that is pumped by population-trapped atoms that are prepared with maximum coherence. The oscillator is based on the use of an effective nonlinear susceptibility that is of the same order as the linear susceptibility. Because the parametric gain is obtained in a single coherence length, the gain bandwidth can exceed the degenerate frequency. In Pb vapor the calculated gain is maximized at 1.88 microm and has a bandwidth of ~7500 cm(-1).