Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wu, Haodong
• Ruan, Yaping
• Li, Zhixiang
• Dong, Ming‐Xin
• Cai, Miao
• Tang, Jiangshan
• Tang, Lei
• Zhang, Han
• Xiao, Min
• Xia, Keyu

Titel

Fundamental Distinction of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and Autler–Townes Splitting in Breaking the Time‐Reversal Symmetry

Ist Teil von

• Laser & photonics reviews, 2022-09, Vol.16 (9), p.n/a

Ort / Verlag

Weinheim: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Despite the essential difference in underlying physics, electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler–Townes splitting (ATS) are difficult to be discriminated because they cause resemble absorption and dispersion to a probe electromagnetic field. They are mainly discerned in the sense of absorption profile fitting. Here, the breakdown of the time‐reversal symmetry (TRS), namely optical nonreciprocity in the EIT and ATS configurations are experimentally observed by using warm rubidium atoms. The microscopic Doppler effect due to atomic thermal motion causes strong optical nonreciprocity to the probe field in the EIT configuration. In stark contrast, the propagation of the probe field is primarily reciprocal in the ATS configuration. The experimental observations in this study objectively distinguish the EIT and ATS effects in the fundamental physics of breaking the TRS. This experiment proves a concept of using the TRS as a testbed for discerning fundamental physical effects. Electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler–Townes splitting are two fundamental quantum effects in quantum optics but difficult to be objectively identified. Experimental observation of optical nonreciprocity in warm atomic systems provides an objective approach to distinguish these two effects because they show essentially different capabilities of breaking the time‐reversal symmetry. This finding deepens the understanding of these two quantum effects.