Manipulate vector beam via optical pumping in atomic vapor

Manipulate vector beam via optical pumping in atomic vaporX. Yang1, J. Wang1, S. Qiu1,2 , M. Cao1,2 , D. Wei1, H. Gao*,1,1Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Quantum Optoelectronic Devices, School of Science,... [ view full abstract ]

Manipulate vector beam via optical pumping in atomic vapor

X. Yang¹, J. Wang¹, S. Qiu^1,2 , M. Cao^1,2 , D. Wei¹, H. Gao^*,1,

¹Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Quantum Optoelectronic Devices, School of Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, 710049 Xi’an, China

²Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ENS-Université PSL, Collège de France, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France

^*e-mail: honggao@xjtu.edu.cn

Vector beam with spacevariant polarization has attracted significant interest due to the unique feature compared with homogeneously polarized beams [1]. It has also been explored to interact with the atomic medium due to the atomic favorable quantum coherence effect [2]. In our work, the hybrid vector beam is used for the pump beam and then the radially vector beam counterpropagates with the pump beam. We find that the probe beam becomes four-petal pattern after passing through the atom medium, and the four-petal pattern intensity distribution can be rotated by rotating a quarter-wave plate of pump beam. We experimentally show the reason of probe beam’s behaviors by inspecting the polarized dependent absorption with mono-polarized states of pump and probe beams, and analyze the light transmission properties under our polarizationarrangements using Jones matrix.

FIG. 1. (a) Experimental setup. (b) Energy-level diagram of the optical pumping configuration. (c)-(d) Stokes parameters of probe and coupling beams. (e) Experimental results.

We note that the maximum absorption occurs when the pump beam has the same linear polarization with the probe beam, while the maximum transmission locates at the pump beam owns circular polarization.

Actually this polarized dependent absorption has been well investigated several decades ago [3–5]. But, using our experimental configuration, and comparing with the linear optical polarizer, we believe our experimental results may provide a convenient and non-destructive polarization selection method for vector beam manipulation based on atomic ensembles.

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