dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaStoring and processing optical information with ultra-slow light in Bose-Einstein condensates
| Authors | Z. Dutton, L. V. Hau |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0404018 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0404018 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.70.053831 |
Abstract
We theoretically explore coherent information transfer between ultra-slow light pulses and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and find that storing light pulses in BECs, by switching off the coupling field, allows the coherent condensate dynamics to process optical information. We develop a formalism, applicable in both the weak and strong probe regimes, to analyze such experiments and establish several new results. Investigating examples relevant to Rb-87 experimental parameters we see a variety of novel two-component BEC dynamics occur during the storage, including interference fringes, gentle breathing excitations, and two-component solitons. We find the dynamics when the levels |F=1, M_F=-1> and |F=2, M_F=+1> are well suited to designing controlled processing of the information. By switching the coupling field back on, the processed information is rewritten onto probe pulses which then propagate out as slow light pulses. We calculate the fidelity of information transfer between the atomic and light fields upon the switch-on and subsequent output. The fidelity is affected both by absorption of small length scale features and absorption of regions of the pulse stored near the condensate edge. In the strong probe case, we find that when the oscillator strengths for the two transitions are equal the fidelity is not strongly sensitive to the probe strength, while when they are unequal the fidelity is worse for stronger probes. Applications to distant communication between BECs, squeezed light generation and quantum information are anticipated.
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"abstract": "We theoretically explore coherent information transfer between ultra-slow\nlight pulses and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and find that storing light\npulses in BECs, by switching off the coupling field, allows the coherent\ncondensate dynamics to process optical information. We develop a formalism,\napplicable in both the weak and strong probe regimes, to analyze such\nexperiments and establish several new results. Investigating examples relevant\nto Rb-87 experimental parameters we see a variety of novel two-component BEC\ndynamics occur during the storage, including interference fringes, gentle\nbreathing excitations, and two-component solitons. We find the dynamics when\nthe levels |F=1, M_F=-1\u003e and |F=2, M_F=+1\u003e are well suited to designing\ncontrolled processing of the information. By switching the coupling field back\non, the processed information is rewritten onto probe pulses which then\npropagate out as slow light pulses. We calculate the fidelity of information\ntransfer between the atomic and light fields upon the switch-on and subsequent\noutput. The fidelity is affected both by absorption of small length scale\nfeatures and absorption of regions of the pulse stored near the condensate\nedge. In the strong probe case, we find that when the oscillator strengths for\nthe two transitions are equal the fidelity is not strongly sensitive to the\nprobe strength, while when they are unequal the fidelity is worse for stronger\nprobes. Applications to distant communication between BECs, squeezed light\ngeneration and quantum information are anticipated.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0404018",
"authors": [
"Z. Dutton",
"L. V. Hau"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph",
"cond-mat.soft"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.70.053831",
"title": "Storing and processing optical information with ultra-slow light in Bose-Einstein condensates",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0404018"
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