High visibility first-order subwavelength interference based on light pulse storage via electromagnetically induced transparency

Abstract

We achieved high visibility first-order subwavelength interference based on light pulse storage and retrieval technique via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal. The interference field distribution of a double-slit was first stored in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal based on EIT effect, and then it was read out by a spatially modulated readout beam. The retrieved output field is proportional to the product of the input interference field of the double-slit and the spatially modulated readout field. High visibility first-order subwavelength interference with an effective wavelength of λ/n, where λ is the wavelength of the input light field and n is any positive integer, can be obtained by designing the spatial modulation structure of the readout field. Experimentally, first-order subwavelength interference with an effective wavelength of λ/3 and a visibility of 67% were demonstrated. Such first-order subwavelength interference has important applications on high resolution optical lithography.

Coherent Optical Field Manipulation and Optical Information Processing Based on Electromagnetically-Induced Transparency Effect in Pr3+:Y2SiO5 Crystal

“…We demonstrated that first-order subwavelength interference with high visibility through a spatial frequency doubling process can be achieved using the light pulse storage and retrieval technique based on the EIT effect in Pr:YSO crystal [103]. As shown in Figure 1, following an EIT-based light pulse storage and retrieval process, the retrieved signal pulse field, E S (x, y), can be written as…”