Light storage in a room-temperature atomic vapor based on coherent population oscillations

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of coherent population oscillation (CPO-) based light storage in an atomic vapor cell at room temperature. Using the ultranarrow CPO between the ground levels of a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system selected by polarization in metastable $^{4}\mathrm{He}$, such a light storage is experimentally shown to be phase preserving. As it does not involve any atomic coherences it has the advantage of being robust to dephasing effects such as small magnetic field inhomogeneities. The storage time is limited by the population lifetime of the ground states of the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system.