Storage of light in atomic vapor.
We report an experiment in which a light pulse is effectively decelerated and trapped in a vapor of Rb atoms, stored for a controlled period of time, and then released on demand. We accomplish this "storage of light" by dynamically reducing the group velocity of the light pulse to zero, so that the coherent excitation of the light is reversibly mapped into a Zeeman (spin) coherence of the Rb vapor.
Phillips
D F
DF
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Fleischhauer
A
A
Mair
A
A
Walsworth
R L
RL
Lukin
M D
MD