Propagation of short pulses through a Bose-Einstein condensate

2007

We investigate potential of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates as dynamic memory devices for coherent optical information processing. Specifically, the number of ultra-slow pulses that can be simultaneously present within the storage time in the condensate has been analyzed. By modelling short pulse propagation through the condensate, taking into account high-order dispersive properties, constraints on the information storage capacity have been discussed. The roles of temperature, spatial inhomogeneity, the interatomic interactions and the coupling laser on the pulse shape have been pointed out. For a restricted set of parameters, it has been found that coherent optical information storage capacity would be optimized.

Journal of The Optical Society of America B-optical Physics, 2006

We investigate the potential of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates as dynamic memory devices for coherent optical information processing. Specifically, the number of ultraslow pulses that can be simultaneously present within the storage time in the condensate has been analyzed. By modeling short-pulse propagation through the condensate, taking into account high-order dispersive properties, constraints on the information storage capacity are discussed. The roles of temperature, spatial inhomogeneity, the interatomic interactions, and the coupling laser on the pulse shape are pointed out. For a restricted set of parameters, it has been found that coherent optical information storage capacity would be optimized.

Optics Letters, 2007

We investigate waveguiding of ultraslow light pulses in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We show that under the conditions of off-resonant electromagnetically induced transparency, waveguiding with a few ultraslow modes can be realized. The number of modes that can be supported by the condensate can be controlled by means of experimentally accessible parameters. Propagation constants and the mode conditions are determined analytically using a WKB analysis. Mode profiles are found numerically.

2009

One dimensional propagation of ultraslow optical pulses in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate taking into account the dispersion and the spatial inhomogeneity is investigated. Analytical and semi-analytical solutions of the dispersive inhomogeneous wave equation modeling the ultraslow pulse propagation are developed and compared against the standard wave equation solvers based upon Cranck-Nicholson and pseudo-spectral methods. The role of curvature of the trapping potential of the condensate on the amount of dispersion of the ultraslow pulse is pointed out.

Proceedings of SPIE, 2007

Light can be slowed down to ultraslow speeds v ia electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. This is thought to be useful for storage of quantum information for weak probe pulses. We investigate the effects of inhomogeneous density profile of the condensate on propagation of such ultraslow pulses. We find that spatial density of an atomic condensate leads to a graded refractive index profile, for an off-resonant probe pulse when condensate parameters are suitably chosen. Within the window of negligible absorption, conditions for degenerate multiple waveguide modes are determined. Both analytical and numerical studies are presented to reveal the effects of experimentally controllable parameters, such as temperature and interatomic interaction strength on the number of modes. Group velocity dispersion and modal dispersion are discussed. The effect of waveguide dispersion, in addition to usual material dispersion, on ultraslow pulses is pointed out.

arXiv: Quantum Gases, 2018

The effect of light-matter interaction is investigated for a situation where counter propagating laser pulses of localized nature are incident on the atomic condensate. In contrast to the earlier investigations on the similar systems, it's assumed that the laser beams are ultra-fast and they have a $\mathrm{sech}^2$ profile. Specifically, we consider a quasi-homogeneous, later extended to inhomogeneous, Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which is exposed to two counter propagating orthogonally polarized ultra-fast laser beams of equal intensity. The electromagnetic field creates an optical potential for the Bose-Einstein condensate, which in turn modifies the optical field. Hence, light and matter are found to contentiously exchange energy and thus to modify themselves dynamically. In the inhomogenous case, a self-similar method is used here to treat a cigar-shaped BEC exposed to light. Our theoretical analysis in a hither to unexplored regime of BEC-light interaction hints at the ...

Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2013

We review and critically evaluate our proposal of a pulse amplification scheme based on two Bose-Einstein condensates inside the resonator of a mode-locked laser. Two condensates are used for compensating the group velocity dispersion. Ultraslow light propagation through the condensate leads to a considerable increase in the cavity round-trip delay time, lowers the effective repetition rate of the laser, and hence scales up the output pulse energy. It has been recently argued that atom-atom interactions would make our proposal even more efficient. However, neither in our original proposal nor in the case of interactions, limitations due to heating of the condensates by optical energy absorption were taken into account. Our results show that there is a critical time of operation, 0.3 ms, for the optimal amplification factor, which is in the order of ∼ 10 2 at effective condensate lengths in the order of ∼ 50 µm. The bandwidth limitation of the amplifier on the minimum temporal width of the pulse that can be amplified with this technique is also discussed.

Physical Review A, 2002

In this work we investigate scattering of ultrashort light pulses from two coupled neutral atomic Bose-Einstein condensates corresponding to two different ground hyperfine sublevels. Two counterpropagating ϩ and Ϫ light waves are employed to excite the atomic condensates. We find that the spectrum of scattered light is determined by the initial preparation of the atomic condensate. The spectrum is found to be a mirror image of the population distribution. The scattered light probes the population distribution between the two condensates. In particular, we find that, when the population is equally distributed between the two ground states, the quantum fluctuations in the spectrum are suppressed due to destructive quantum interference.

We investigate the propagation of ultraslow optical pulse in atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic trap decorated with a dimple potential. The role of dimple potential on the group velocity and time delay is studied. Since we consider the interatomic scattering interactions nonlinear Schrdinger equation or Gross-Pitaevskii equation is used in order to get the density profile of the atomic system. We find large group delays of order 1 msec in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic trap with a deep dimple potential.

Physical Review Letters, 2000

A Bose-Einstein condensate illuminated by a single off-resonant laser beam ("dressed condensate") shows a high gain for matter waves and light. We have characterized the optical and atom-optical properties of the dressed condensate by injecting light or atoms, illuminating the key role of longlived matter wave gratings produced by the condensate at rest and recoiling atoms. The narrow bandwidth for optical gain gave rise to an extremely slow group velocity of an amplified light pulse (∼ 1 m/s).

Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2011

We discuss the passage-time statistics of superradiant light pulses generated during the scattering of laser light from an elongated atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. Focusing on the early-stage of the phenomenon, we analyze the corresponding probability distributions and their scaling behaviour with respect to the threshold photon number and the coupling strength. With respect to these parameters, we find quantities which only vary significantly during the transition between the Kapitza Dirac and the Bragg regimes. A possible connection of the present observations to Brownian motion is also discussed.

Physical Review A, 2005

We have observed the diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms on a vibrating mirror potential. The matter wave packet bounces back at normal incidence on a blue-detuned evanescent light field after a 3.6 mm free fall. The mirror vibrates at a frequency of 500 kHz with an amplitude of 3.0 nm. The atomic carrier and sidebands are directly imaged during their ballistic expansion. The locations and the relative weights of the diffracted atomic wave packets are in very good agreement with the theoretical prediction of Carsten Henkel et al. [1].

Laser Physics, 2007

The coherent optical information storage capacity of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is examined. The theory of slow light propagation in atomic clouds is generalized to the short-pulse regime by taking into account group velocity dispersion. It is shown that the number of stored pulses in the condensate can be optimized for a particular coupling laser power, temperature, and interatomic interaction strength. Analytical results are derived for a semi-ideal model of the condensate using the effective uniform density zone approximation. Detailed numerical simulations are also performed. It is found that the axial density profile of the condensate protects the pulse against group velocity dispersion. Furthermore, taking into account the finite radial size of the condensate, multimode light propagation in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated. The number of modes that can be supported by a condensate is found. The single-mode condition is determined as a function of experimentally accessible parameters including trap size, temperature, condensate number density, and scattering length. Quantum coherent atom-light interaction schemes are proposed for enhancing multimode light propagation effects.