Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 61: Poster Quanteneffekte
Q 61.13: Poster
Thursday, March 22, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster C
Stern-Gerlach experiment for slow light — •Leon Karpa1,2 and Martin Weitz1,2 — 1Institut für Angewandte Physik der Universität Bonn, Wegelerstr. 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany — 2Physikalisches Institut der Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Electromagnetically induced transparency allows for light transmission through dense atomic media by means of quantum interference of absorption amplitudes [1]. Media exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency have interesting properties, such as very slow group velocities [2]. Associated with the slow light propagation are quasiparticles, so-called dark polaritons, which are mixtures of a photonic and an atomic contribution [3]. In contrast to the properties of a free photon, it can be demonstrated that these excitations behave as particles with a nonzero magnetic moment. We report on ongoing experiments in which circularily polarized light passing through a rubidium gas cell under EIT conditions is deflected by a small magnetic field gradient [4]. The deflection angle is proportional to the propagation time of an optical pulse through the cell. The observed beam deflection can be understood by assuming that dark state polaritons have an effective magnetic moment. Our experiment can be described in terms of a Stern-Gerlach experiment for the dark polaritons.
[1] See e.g.: E. Arimondo, Prog. Opt. 35, 257 (1996)
[2] See e.g.: L. V. Hau et al. Nature (London) 397, 594 (1999)
[3] M. Fleischhauer and M. D. Lukin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5094 (2000)
[4] L. Karpa and M. Weitz, Nature Physics 2, 332 (2006)