Electromagnetically induced grating: Homogeneously broadened medium

Abstract

A strong coupling standing wave, interacting with three-level \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type (or ladder-type) atoms, can diffract a weak probe field (propagating along a direction normal to the standing wave) into high-order diffractions, a phenomenon which we name electromagnetically induced grating (EIG). We develop in this work a theory for studying EIG in a homogeneously broadened medium consisting of three-level \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type atoms. We show that by taking advantage of the absorption and dispersion properties of electromagnetically induced transparency one can create an atomic grating that can effectively diffract light into the first-order direction.