Storage and Retrieval of Thermal Light in Warm AtomicVapor

摘要

We report an experimental demonstration of slowed propagation and storage and retrieval of thermal light using the effect of electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) in the A-type system of the Dl transition of 85Rb atom. The slowed-propagation of the probe thermal light beam through an EIT medium is observed by measuring the second-order correlation function of the light field using the Hanbury-Brown—Twiss interferometer. We also demonstrate the storage and retrieval of thermal light beam in the EIT medium. The direct measurement of the photon number statistics of the retrieved light field shows that the photon number statistics is preserved during the storage and retrieval process.