Study of optical nonlinearity of a highly dispersive medium using optical heterodyne detection technique

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of optical heterodyne detection to analyze the absorption, dispersion, and nonlinearity of a probe beam in a dispersive medium with narrow resonance, demonstrated with rubidium vapor.

Contribution

It introduces a method to quantitatively study optical nonlinearity and resonance effects using heterodyne detection in Rydberg EIT media, with theoretical comparison.

Findings

Successful demonstration of heterodyne detection for Rydberg EIT in rubidium vapor

Quantitative agreement between experimental results and theoretical models

Discussion of the technique's limitations and operational regime

Abstract

We discuss the optical heterodyne detection technique to study the absorption and dispersion of a probe beam propagating through a medium with a narrow resonance. The technique has been demonstrated for Rydberg Electro-magnetically induced transparency (EIT) in rubidium thermal vapor and the optical non-linearity of a probe beam with variable intensity has been studied. A quantitative comparison of the experimental result with a suitable theoretical model is presented. The limitations and the working regime of the technique are discussed.