Collapses and revivals of stored orbital angular momentum of light in a cold atomic ensemble

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the storage, manipulation, and observation of orbital angular momentum of light in a cold cesium atomic ensemble, revealing collapses and revivals influenced by magnetic fields over microsecond timescales.

Contribution

It introduces a method for storing and controlling orbital angular momentum in cold atoms, including observing long-lived collapses and revivals due to atomic coherence rotation.

Findings

Successful storage of orbital angular momentum in cold atoms

Observation of collapses and revivals over 15 microseconds

Magnetic field manipulation affects atomic coherence dynamics

Abstract

We report on the storage of orbital angular momentum of light in a cold ensemble of cesium atoms. We employ Bragg diffraction to retrieve the stored optical information impressed into the atomic coherence by the incident light fields. The stored information can be manipulated by an applied magnetic field and we were able to observe collapses and revivals due to the rotation of the stored atomic Zeeman coherence for times longer than 15 $\mu s$.