Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

JUL 01, 1997

One can make opaque resonant transitions transparent to laser radiation, often with most of the atoms remaining in the ground state.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881806

Stephen E. Harris

Electromagnetically induced transparency is a technique for eliminating the effect of a medium on a propagating beam of electromagnetic radiation. EIT may also be used, but under more limited conditions, to eliminate optical self‐focusing and defocusing and to improve the transmission of laser beams through inhomogeneous refracting gases and metal vapors, as figure 1 illustrates. The technique may be used to create large populations of coherently driven uniformly phased atoms, thereby making possible new types of optoelectronic devices.

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More about the Authors

Stephen E. Harris. Stanford University, Stanford, California.