title: Enhancing electromagnetically-induced transparency in a multilevel broadened medium.
abstract: Electromagnetically-induced transparency has become an important tool to control the optical properties of dense media. However, in a broad class of systems, the interplay between inhomogeneous broadening and the existence of several excited levels may lead to a vanishing transparency. Here, by identifying the underlying physical mechanisms resulting in this effect, we show that transparency can be strongly enhanced. We thereby demonstrate a 5-fold enhancement in a room-temperature vapor of alkali-metal atoms via a specific shaping of the atomic velocity distribution.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS, Case 74, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scherman
authors.forename: O S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Mishina
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giacobino
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laurat