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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 89 » Issue 23
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 233001 (2002) [4 pages]

Control of Light Pulse Propagation with Only a Few Cold Atoms in a High-Finesse Microcavity

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Yukiko Shimizu*, Noritsugu Shiokawa†, Noriaki Yamamoto, Mikio Kozuma‡, and Takahiro Kuga
Institute of Physics, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan

L. Deng and E. W. Hagley
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899

Received 5 June 2002; published 15 November 2002

Propagation of a light pulse through a high-Q optical microcavity containing a few cold atoms (N̅ <10) in its cavity mode is investigated experimentally. With less than ten cold rubidium atoms launched into an optical microcavity, up to 170 ns propagation lead time (“superluminal”), and 440 ns propagation delay time (subluminal) are observed. Comparison of the experimental data with numerical simulations as well as future experiments are discussed.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.233001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.233001
PACS:
32.80.Pj, 42.50.Ct

*Current address: National Metrology Institute of Japan, AIST, Tsukuba Central 3, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8563, Japan.

Electronic address: shimizu-yukiko@aist.go.jp

†Current address: Toshiba Corporation, 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki 212-8582, Japan.

‡Current address: Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Megro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.

 
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