Uniform phase modulation via control of refractive index in a thermal atom vapor with vanishing diffraction or absorption

作者：Zhang Lida^*; Evers Joerg

来源：Physical Review A, 2014, 90(2): 023826.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevA.90.023826

A scheme is proposed to achieve substantial controllable phase modulation for a probe field propagating through a thermal atomic vapor in double-Lambda configuration. The phase modulation is based on manipulating the linear susceptibility of the probe field, paraxial diffraction is eliminated by exploiting the thermal motion of atoms, and residual absorption is compensated via an incoherent pump field. As a result of the homogeneous change in the refractive index, a strong controllable uniform phase modulation without paraxial diffraction is achieved essentially independent of the spatial profile or the intensity of the probe field. This phase shift can be controlled via the intensities of the control or the incoherent pump fields. A possible proof-of-principle experiment in alkali-metal atoms is discussed.

• 出版日期2014-8-14