Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 5238 - 5241 (1997)Coherent Control of Spontaneous Emission near a Photonic Band Edge: A Single-Atom Optical Memory Device |
Tran Quang, Mesfin Woldeyohannes, and Sajeev John
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60, St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A7
Girish S. Agarwal
Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, D-85740 Garching, Germany
and Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad-380 009, India
Received 9 January 1997
We demonstrate coherent control of spontaneous emission from a three-level atom with one resonant frequency near the edge of a photonic band gap. As a result of quantum interference and photon localization, spontaneous emission can be totally suppressed or strongly enhanced depending on the relative phase between the control and pump laser fields. The fractionalized steady state inversion of the atom depends sensitively on the initial conditions, suggesting the possibility of a phase-sensitive, optical memory device on the atomic scale.
©1997 The American Physical Society
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v79/p5238
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.5238
PACS: 42.70.Qs, 42.50.Gy, 42.79.Vb
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