Propagation of a laser pulse in a three-level cascade atomic medium under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency

Abstract

We study the propagation dynamics of a single pair of probe and coupling laser pulses in a three-level cascade atomic medium by numerical solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations for atoms and fields. There are investigated influences of pulse duration, intensity and pulse area of a coupling laser on probe laser propagation. We found the conditions when the undistorted probe pulse in such a medium, i.e., the EIT effect, is established. Under EIT conditions, the ground state population is trapped in a dark state.