Light storage via coherent population oscillation in a thermal cesium vapor

Abstract

We report on the storage of light via the phenomenon of coherent population oscillation (CPO) in an atomic cesium vapor at room temperature. In the experiment the optical information of a probe field is stored in the CPO of two ground states of a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ three-level system formed by the Zeeman sublevels of the hyperfine transition $F=3\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=2$ of the cesium ${D}_{2}$ line. We show directly that this CPO-based memory is very insensitive to stray magnetic field inhomogeneities and presents a lifetime which is limited mainly by atomic motion. A theoretical simulation of the measured spectra was also developed and is in very good agreement with the experiment.