Enhanced all-optical switching with double slow light pulses

Chi-Ching Lin, Meng-Chang Wu, Bor-Wen Shiau, Yi-Hsin Chen, Ite A. Yu, Yong-Fan Chen, and Ying-Cheng Chen
Phys. Rev. A 86, 063836 – Published 28 December 2012

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical switching (AOS) scheme based on double slow light (DSL) pulses, in which one pulse is switched by another due to the cross-Kerr nonlinearity. The interaction time is prolonged by optically dense atomic media and matched group velocities. The interaction strength is maintained at a high level by keeping both fields at their electromagnetically-induced-transparency resonances to minimize the linear loss. In the AOS without the DSL scheme, the group velocity mismatch sets an upper limit on the switching efficiency of two photons per atomic cross section as discussed by Harris and Hau [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4611 (1999)]. Compared to that limit, we have obtained an enhanced switching efficiency by a factor of 3 with our DSL scheme. The nonlinear efficiency can be further improved by increasing the optical depth of the medium. Our work advances low-light-level nonlinear optics and provides essential ingredients for quantum many-body physics using strongly interacting photons.

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  • Received 14 March 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.86.063836

©2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Chi-Ching Lin1, Meng-Chang Wu1, Bor-Wen Shiau1, Yi-Hsin Chen2, Ite A. Yu2, Yong-Fan Chen3, and Ying-Cheng Chen1,2,*

  • 1Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
  • 2Department of Physics and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
  • 3Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan

  • *chenyc@pub.iams.sinica.edu.tw

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Vol. 86, Iss. 6 — December 2012

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