Atomic state preparation as an effective control tool for engineering the EIT based slow light

Abstract

The influence of the initial state preparation on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and slow light propagation in ⁸⁷Rb is theoretically investigated. By solving the Liouville equation for an 8 × 8 density matrix, we demonstrate that using special polarized optical beams for state preparation and engineering the population distribution among Zeeman sublevels, a significant reduction in group velocity could be achieved. The results interestingly show that the group velocity of slow light can be reduced by more than 20 dB through initial pumping of the atomic sample with balanced right- and left-circularly polarized resonant light.