title: Coherent control of the waveforms of recoilless γ-ray photons.
abstract: The concepts and ideas of coherent, nonlinear and quantum optics have been extended to photon energies in the range of 10-100 kiloelectronvolts, corresponding to soft γ-ray radiation (the term used when the radiation is produced in nuclear transitions) or, equivalently, hard X-ray radiation (the term used when the radiation is produced by electron motion). The recent experimental achievements in this energy range include the demonstration of parametric down-conversion in the Langevin regime, electromagnetically induced transparency in a cavity, the collective Lamb shift, vacuum-assisted generation of atomic coherences and single-photon revival in nuclear absorbing multilayer structures. Also, realization of single-photon coherent storage and stimulated Raman adiabatic passage were recently proposed in this regime. More related work is discussed in a recent review. However, the number of tools for the coherent manipulation of interactions between γ-ray photons and nuclear ensembles remains limited. Here we suggest and implement an efficient method to control the waveforms of γ-ray photons coherently. In particular, we demonstrate the conversion of individual recoilless γ-ray photons into a coherent, ultrashort pulse train and into a double pulse. Our method is based on the resonant interaction of γ-ray photons with an ensemble of nuclei with a resonant transition frequency that is periodically modulated in time. The frequency modulation, which is achieved by a uniform vibration of the resonant absorber, owing to the Doppler effect, renders resonant absorption and dispersion both time dependent, allowing us to shape the waveforms of the incident γ-ray photons. We expect that this technique will lead to advances in the emerging fields of coherent and quantum γ-ray photon optics, providing a basis for the realization of γ-ray-photon/nuclear-ensemble interfaces and quantum interference effects at nuclear γ-ray transitions.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA [2] Kazan Federal University, Kazan 420008, Russia [3] Kazan Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420029, Russia.
authors.forename: Farit
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vagizov
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA [2] Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia [3] N.I. Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Antonov
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA [2] Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia [3] N.I. Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia.
authors.forename: Y V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Radeonychev
authors.affiliation: 1] Kazan Federal University, Kazan 420008, Russia [2] Kazan Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420029, Russia.
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Shakhmuratov
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kocharovskaya