Stationary light pulses in cold atoms at large optical depth

光与量子系统之间的相干相互作用引起了光学物理学越来越多的科学兴趣。电磁感应透明（EIT）是这种相互作用的一个突出例子。最近，EIT被提出用于实现静止光脉冲（SLPs），即光被捕获在“全光”腔中。slp允许应用于量子信息处理和相关领域，例如制备纠缠光子、极化子的BECs、量子界面或光子的“晶体”，即由光构成的强相关系统。slp需要大光学深度的原子介质。最近的一项技术尝试是将（冷）原子装入空心光纤内的光阱中。然而，该技术仍然存在装载效率和加热效率低的问题。作者提出了一种改进的装置，即将冷原子从非球形磁光阱转移到空心芯光纤中。该装置将提供非常大的光学深度，而不会加热原子。本提案涉及(i)实现在大光学深度提供冷原子的新装置，（ii） slp的制备和研究，（iii） slp的应用以提供光子的“晶体”，以及（iv）相关研究。因此，该项目旨在结合冷物质领域的新兴技术和量子光学的新概念。

Coherent interactions between light and quantum systems attracted increasing scientific interest in optical physics. Electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) exhibits a prominent example for such interactions. Recently, EIT was proposed to enable stationary light pulses (SLPs), i.e. light trapped in an “all-optical” cavity. SLPs permit applications in quantum information processing and related areas, e.g. to prepare entangled photons, BECs of polaritons, quantum interfaces, or “crystals” of photons, i.e. strongly correlated systems made of light. SLPs require atomic media at large optical depth. A recent technological attempt is based on loading of (cold) atoms into an optical trap inside a hollow-core fiber. However, the technology still suffers from small loading efficiencies and heating. The author proposes a modified setup, i.e. transfer of cold atoms from a non-spherical magneto-optical trap into the hollow-core fiber. The setup will provide very large optical depth, without heating of the atoms. This proposal deals with (i) implementation of the novel setup to provide cold atoms at large optical depth, (ii) preparation and investigation of SLPs, (iii) application of SLPs to provide a “crystal” of photons, and (iv) related investigations. Thus, the project aims at a combination of emerging technologies from the field of cold matter and novel concepts of quantum optics.