Observation of electromagnetically induced Talbot effect in an atomic system

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the Talbot effect resulting from the repeated self-reconstruction of a spatially intensity-modulated probe field under the Fresnel near-field regime. By launching the probe beam into an optically induced atomic lattice (established by interfering two coupling fields) inside a rubidium vapor cell, we can obtain an diffracted probe beam pattern from an formed electromagnetically induced grating (EIG) in a three-level -type Doppler-free atomic configuration with the assistance of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The EIG-based diffraction pattern repeats itself at the planes of integer multiple Talbot lengths, which agrees well with the theoretical prediction [Appl. Phys. Lett., 98, 081108 (2011)]. In addition, fractional EIT-induced Talbot effect was also investigated. Such experimentally demonstrated EIT Talbot effect in a coherently-prepared atomic system may pave a way for lensless and nondestructive imaging of ultracold atoms and molecules, and further demonstrating nonlinear/quantum beam dynamical features predicted for established periodic optical systems. The conventional Talbot effect characterized as a self-imaging or lensless imaging phenomenon was first implemented by launching a very weak white light into a Fraunhofer diffraction grating and observing the images of the same periodic structure at certain periodical distances with integer multiples of Talbot length [1, 2]. The wide practicability and simplicity of the self-imaging processes have inspired continuous and in-depth researches on the Talbot effect in various systems.[3] Since the invention of coherent light sources, studies of this near-field diffraction phenomenon have made great progresses not only in optics, such as optical measurements [4] and optical computing [5], but also in a variety of new areas including waveguide arrays [6], parity-time symmetric optics [7], X-ray diffraction [8],Bose-Einstein condensates [9], second-harmonic generation [10], quantum optics [11,12] and the recently proposed Airy-Talbot effect [13][14][15]. In 2011, the Talbot effect based on an

Nonlinear light diffraction by electromagnetically induced gratings with PT symmetry in a Rydberg atomic gas

“…From Eqs. ( 5) and ( 6), the real and imaginary parts of the potential are determined simultaneously by the spatial modulations in the control and assistant fields, which can be generated experimentally by the interference of additional pairs of laser fields [19,24]. In Figs.…”

“…Propagation of light fields in solid gratings leads to nontrivial diffraction, such as diffraction with perfect transmittance and focusing abilities [15,16] and the Talbot effect [17,18], which is known as a lensless selfimaging phenomenon. In particular, the Talbot effect has been experimentally observed recently with EIGs created in atomic gases [19]. On the other hand, there has been growing interest in the exploration of EIG-related optical phenomena in nonlinear regime.…”

Generating Lieb and super-honeycomb lattices by employing the fractional Talbot effect

“…Nonetheless, the Talbot effect still attracts considerable attention of many research groups around the globe [3], for its potential applications in image preprocessing and synthesis, photolithography, optical testing, optical metrology, spectrometry, and optical computing. Today, research efforts that involve the Talbot effect include atomic optics [4][5][6], quantum optics [7,8], nonlinear optics [9][10][11], waveguide arrays [12], photonic lattices [13], Bose-Einstein condensates [14,15], and electronics [16], to name a few. It is worth mentioning that the Talbot effect can also be observed by using spherical waves [17] and accelerating beams [18][19][20].…”

Multi-wave-mixing-induced nonlinear modulation of diffraction peaks in an opto-atomic grating

“…The mechanism of electromagnetically induced Talbot effect similar to EIG has been discussed in Ref. 36 and also demonstrated experimentally 37 .…”