Refraction of the Two-Photon Multimode Field via a Three-Level Atom.

Abstract

Classically, the refractive index of a medium is due to a response on said medium from an electromagnetic field. It has been shown that a single two-level atom interacting with a single photon undergoes dispersion. The following extends that analyses to a three-level system interacting with two photons. Analysis of the system is completed both numerically for all photonic field modes, and analytically for an adiabatic solution of a single field mode. The findings are not only interesting for understanding additional physical phenomena due to the increased complexity of a three-level, two-photon system, but are also necessary for advancing applications such as quantum communications, quantum computation, and quantum information.