Eur. Phys. J. D 60, 373-382 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-00200-y

Pulse pair generation from coherently prepared atomic ensembles

Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901, Recife, PE, Brazil

Corresponding author: ^a dfelinto@df.ufpe.br

Received: 24 March 2010
Revised: 1 June 2010
Published online: 27 July 2010

Abstract

We report a detailed investigation on the generation of pulse pairs during the readout of a coherence grating stored in a cold atomic ensemble. The pulse shapes and the split of the retrieved energy between the two pulses are studied as a function of the relative intensities of the two reading fields, and a minimum is observed for the total retrieved energy. We introduce a simplified analytical theory for the process, considering a three-level atomic system, which explains all the most striking experimental features.