Observation of transient electromagnetically induced transparency in a rubidium Λ system

Abstract

Observation of transient effects in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is reported in [Formula Presented] cooled in a magneto-optical trap. The transmission of a weak probe beam in resonance with the [Formula Presented] to [Formula Presented] hyperfine transition increased transiently when a relatively strong coupling field in resonance with the [Formula Presented] to [Formula Presented] hyperfine transition was switched on rapidly using a Pockels cell. The probe transient showed an initial Rabi half-cycle overshoot before settling down to steady-state EIT. The results agreed well with computations using a three-state model of the Λ system. The computations also suggest that transient gain should be observed with coupling field power only four times larger than that presently available to us. © 1998 The American Physical Society.