Long-range dipole-dipole exchange-induced atomic grating.

Abstract

We propose a theoretical scheme for dipole exchange-induced grating (DEIG) based on a hybrid coherent atomic system. The system consists of an ultra-cold rubidium (⁸⁷Rb) atomic ensemble and movable Rydberg spin atoms. The optical response of the grating appears as a superposition of three- and four-level configurations, which is similar to the cooperative optical nonlinearity caused by the dipole blockade effect. The far-field diffraction properties of the cooperative optical nonlinear grating are tuned by the probe field (intensity and photon statistics). However, our Rydberg atomic grating uniquely responds to the spatial positions of spin atoms, which offers a novel approach to dynamically control electromagnetically induced gratings (EIG).