Storage and Retrieval of Thermal Light in Warm Atomic Vapor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the slowing, storage, and retrieval of thermal light in warm rubidium vapor using electromagnetically-induced transparency, preserving photon statistics during the process.

Contribution

It is the first to experimentally show thermal light storage and retrieval in warm atomic vapor with preserved photon statistics.

Findings

Thermal light propagation is slowed using EIT.

Photon number statistics are preserved during storage and retrieval.

The temporal coherence of thermal light is affected by the EIT medium.

Abstract

We report slowed propagation and storage and retrieval of thermal light in warm rubidium vapor using the effect of electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). We first demonstrate slowed-propagation of the probe thermal light beam through an EIT medium by measuring the second-order correlation function of the light field using the Hanbury-Brown$-$Twiss interferometer. We also report an experimental study on the effect of the EIT slow-light medium on the temporal coherence of thermal light. Finally, we demonstrate the storage and retrieval of thermal light beam in the EIT medium. The direct measurement of the photon number statistics of the retrieved light field shows that the photon number statistics is preserved during the storage and retrieval process.