Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 275
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2012-20723-3

Regular Article

High speed spatially multimode Λ-type atomic memory with arbitrary frequency detuning

¹ St. Petersburg State University, 198504 St. Petersburg, Stary Petershof, ul., Ul’yanovskaya, 1, Russia
² Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, Case 74, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
³ Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany

^a e-mail: tania.golubeva@gmail.com

Received: 12 December 2011
Received in final form: 2 September 2012
Published online: 30 October 2012

Abstract

We present a general model for an atomic memory using ultra-short pulses of light, which allows both spatial and temporal multimode storage. The process involves the storage of a faint quantum light pulse into the spin coherence of the ground state of Λ-type 3-level atoms, in the presence of a strong driving pulse. Our model gives a full description of the evolution of the field and of the atomic coherence in space and time throughout the writing and the read-out processes. It is valid for any frequency detuning, from the resonant case to the Raman case, and allows a detailed optimization of the memory efficiency.