Light manipulation by dual channel storage in ultra-cold Rydberg medium

Abstract

We investigate the light propagation dynamics in ultra-cold Rydberg medium with inverted-Y configuration based on the superatom theory. It is viable to store light information in two types of atomic spin coherence (trivial spin coherence and Rydberg spin coherence), which makes the system a prospective platform for versatile light manipulation. A normal feature is to realize efficient light storage with simultaneous resonant control fields applied. An intriguing feature is to split light into two beams with different intensities and statistical properties if the control fields are applied separately. The beam of light retrieved from the Rydberg spin coherence is severely attenuated and shows anti-bunching character accompanied by the cooperative optical nonlinearity. Moreover, generation and manipulation of beating signal are achievable by applying the non-resonant control fields.