Frequency matching in light-storage spectroscopy of atomic Raman transitions

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Aug 28;103(9):093601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.093601. Epub 2009 Aug 28.

Abstract

We investigate the storage of light in an atomic sample with a Lambda-type coupling scheme driven by optical fields at variable two-photon detuning. In the presence of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), light is stored and retrieved from the sample by dynamically varying the group velocity. It is found that for any two-photon detuning of the input light pulse within the EIT transparency window, the carrier frequency of the retrieved light pulse matches the two-photon resonance frequency with the atomic ground state transition and the control field. This effect which is not based on spectral filtering is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It can be used for high-speed precision measurements of the two-photon resonance as employed, e.g., in optical magnetometry.