Coherent Control of Hyperfine States and Slow and Fast Light Switching in Ultracold Atoms

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical scheme for controlling slow and fast light in ultracold sodium atoms by manipulating hyperfine states through coherent optical interactions, enabling tunable light propagation speeds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for switching between slow and fast light in ultracold atoms using coherent control of hyperfine states, with analysis of field detuning and intensity effects.

Findings

Large bandwidth slow and fast light achievable

Co-propagation of slow and fast light modes demonstrated

Switching between light speeds controllable via field parameters

Abstract

We propose a scheme for attaining slow and fast light via coherent control of the hyperfine ground and excited states of an ultracold atomic system. The proposed scheme is theoretically analyzed for the $D_1$ transition of ultracold $^{23}$ Na atoms. The role of field detuning and field intensity on both the population transfer and induced polarization is investigated. It is shown that slow and fast light, with large bandwidth could be obtained in the proposed system. It is inferred that both slow and fast light could co-propagate, pertaining to different optical and Raman transitions. Further, it is observed that switching between the slow and the fast light is achievable by controlling the field intensity, as well as the field detuning.