Coherent and dynamic beam splitting based on light storage in cold atoms.
We demonstrate a coherent and dynamic beam splitter based on light storage in cold atoms. An input weak laser pulse is first stored in a cold atom ensemble via electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). A set of counter-propagating control fields, applied at a later time, retrieves the stored pulse into two output spatial modes. The high visibility interference between the two output pulses clearly demonstrates that the beam splitting process is coherent. Furthermore, by manipulating the control lasers, it is possible to dynamically control the storage time, the power splitting ratio, the relative phase, and the optical frequencies of the output pulses. With further improvements, the active beam splitter demonstrated in this work might have applications in photonic photonic quantum information and in all-optical information processing.
Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
Kwang-Kyoon
KK
Park
Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
Tian-Ming
TM
Zhao
Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
Jong-Chan
JC
Lee
Department of Medical Technology, Gwangju University, Gwangju 61743, Korea.
Young-Tak
YT
Chough
Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
Yoon-Ho
YH
Kim
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