Abstract

The propagation of laser pulses is frequently investigated in optically thick media that consist of atoms, with a transition frequency close to that of the laser pulse. One reason for this is, that a medium of coherently prepared atoms can have very interesting and useful nonlinear optical properties. Such a medium can be prepared, for example, using laser pulses that perform some coherent manipulation of the atoms, like a complete transfer of the atomic populations from one atomic state to another. When using laser pulses to prepare such an atomic medium, or when investigating its optical properties, it is important to know whether the pulse that performs a certain type of coherent population transfer will keep this property throughout an optically thick sample. Thus the investigation of the propagation of this pulse is needed.

© 2007 IEEE