Abstract

When narrowband probe radiation traveling through a bulk material is tuned to a resonance transition from the ground state of the material, the radiation experiences strong attenuation and dispersion. Recent theoretical¹ and experimental^2,3 work has demonstrated that this attenuation can be almost completely eliminated by the addition of a strong coherent coupling radiation field coupling a third state to the upper state of the resonance transition. In effect, a destructive quantum interference blocks the excitation of the atom from its ground state and renders the atom transparent. We term this effect “electromagnetically induced transparency.”

© 1994 Optical Society of America