Polarization properties of 'slow' light

TL;DR

This paper investigates how arbitrarily polarized weak light pulses split into two orthogonal dark-state polaritons with different speeds in a resonant atomic medium, revealing polarization-dependent propagation effects.

Contribution

It provides analytical expressions for the polarizations and group velocities of dark-state polaritons in a Lambda-type atomic system, considering various atomic and field parameters.

Findings

Polarization-dependent splitting into two polaritons.

Expressions for polarizations and group velocities derived.

Dependence on atomic level angular momenta and field polarization studied.

Abstract

The propagation of the arbitrarily polarized pulse of the weak probe field through the resonant medium of Lambda-type three-level atoms with degenerate levels adiabatically driven by the coherent coupling field is considered. It is shown that such pulse is decomposed in the medium into two orthogonally polarized dark-state polaritons propagating with different group velocities. The expressions for the polarizations and group velocities of these two polaritons are obtained. The dependence of these polarizations and group velocities on the values of the angular momenta of resonant levels, on the polarization of the coupling field and on the initial atomic state is studied.