Abstract

The coherent interaction of light with atoms can cause quantum interference between the excitation amplitudes of different optical transitions. This can dramatically change the optical response of a medium. Perhaps the most intriguing example of this is electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [1], rendering a medium transparent for resonant probe light when simultaneously exposed to an additional control beam. Related techniques have led to EIT based quantum memories which can store and retrieve optical information [2, 3].

© 2015 IEEE