Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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SYTL: Symposium Interactions between Twisted Light and Particles

SYTL 1: Symposium on interactions between twisted light and particles I (SYTL)

SYTL 1.3: Talk

Friday, March 27, 2015, 12:00–12:20, C/gHS

Spatially dependent electromagnetically induced transparency — •Neal Radwell¹, Thomas William Clark¹, Bruno Piccirillo², Stephen Mark Barnett¹, and Sonja Franke-Arnold¹ — ¹SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK — ²Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Napoli *Federico II*, Complesso Universitario di Monte S. Angelo, 80126 Napoli, Italy

Recent years have seen vast progress in the generation and detection of structured light, with potential applications in high capacity optical data storage and continuous variable quantum technologies. Here we measure the transmission of structured light through cold rubidium atoms and observe regions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We use q-plates to generate a probe beam with azimuthally varying phase and polarisation structure, and its right and left circular polarisation components provide the probe and control of an EIT transition. We observe an azimuthal modulation of the absorption profile that is dictated by the phase and polarisation structure of the probe laser. Conventional EIT systems do not exhibit phase sensitivity. We show, however, that a weak transverse magnetic field closes the EIT transitions, thereby generating phase dependent dark states which in turn lead to phase dependent transparency, in agreement with our measurements.