Stern-Gerlach effect of weak-light ultraslow vector solitons

  • Chao Hang*
  • , Guoxiang Huang
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a scheme to exhibit Stern-Gerlach deflection of high-dimensional vector optical solitons at a weak-light level in a cold atomic gas via electromagnetically induced transparency. We show that the propagating velocity and generation power of such solitons can be reduced to 10 -6c (c is light speed in vacuum) and lowered to magnitude of nanowatt, respectively. The stabilization of the solitons is realized by using an optical lattice potential formed by a far-detuned laser field, and trajectories of them are deflected significantly by using a transversal Stern-Gerlach gradient magnetic field. Deflection angles of the solitons can be of magnitude of 10 -3 rad when propagating several millimeters. Different from atomic Stern-Gerlach deflection, deflection angles of the solitons can be distinct for different polarization components and can be manipulated in a controllable way. The result obtained can be described in terms of the Stern-Gerlach effect for vector optical solitons with quasispin and effective magnetic moment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number043809
JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Volume86
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 5 Oct 2012

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