ELECTROMAGNETICALLY INDUCED GRATING - HOMOGENEOUSLY BROADENED MEDIUM

A strong coupling standing wave, interacting with three-level Lambda-t ype (or ladder-type) atoms, can diffract a weak probe field (propagati ng along a direction normal to the standing wave) into high-order diff ractions, a phenomenon which we name electromagnetically induced grati ng (EIG). We develop in this work a theory for studying EIG in a homog eneously broadened medium consisting of three-level Lambda-type atoms. We show that by taking advantage of the absorption and dispersion pro perties of electromagnetically induced transparency one can create an atomic grating that fan effectively diffract light into the first-orde r direction. [S1050-2947(98)03902-X].