Related papers: Light propagation beyond the mean-field theory of …
We study light propagation through a slab of cold gas using both the standard electrodynamics of polarizable media, and massive atom-by-atom simulations of the electrodynamics. The main finding is that the predictions from the two methods…
We theoretically study the propagation of light through a cold atomic medium, where the effects of motion, laser intensity, atomic density, and polarization can all modify the properties of the scattered light. We present two different…
A gas of ultracold atoms probed with laser light is a nearly-ideal experimental realization of a medium of resonant point-like scatterers, a key problem from condensed matter to biology or photonics. Yet, several recent experiments have…
We calculate the relative permittivity of a cold atomic gas under weak probe illumination, up to second order in the density. Within the framework of a diagrammatic representation method, we identify all the second order diagrams that enter…
Light scattering in dense media is a fundamental problem of many-body physics, which is also relevant for the development of optical devices. In this work we investigate experimentally light propagation in a dense sample of randomly…
The transfer-matrix method is a standard approach to wave propagation in stratified media. With the advent of cold-atom-based quantum and photonic technologies, several experiments and many proposals consider light propagation in…
We describe propagation of light in a gas with periodic density modulation, demonstrating photonic-crystal-like refraction with negative refraction angles. We address the role of poorly defined boundaries and damping, and derive an optical…
Light refraction, i.e. the bending of the path of a light wave at the interface between two different dielectric media, is ubiquitous in optics. Refraction arises from the different speed of light and is unavoidable in continuous media…
The optical properties of randomly positioned, resonant scatterers is a fundamentally difficult problem to address across a wide range of densities and geometries. We investigate it experimentally using a dense cloud of rubidium atoms…
We consider light propagation through a twisted nematic liquid crystal. At first, an expression for light transmission is obtained using a rather intuitive approach. Secondly, an accurate solution for light transmission based on Maxwell's…
The optical medium analogy of a radiation field generated by either an exact gravitational plane wave or an exact electromagnetic wave in the framework of general relativity is developed. The equivalent medium of the associated background…
A few years ago, diffraction of atoms by double slits and gratings was achieved for the first time, and standard optical wave-theory provided an excellent description of the experiments. More recently, diffraction of weakly bound molecules…
Light propagation is viewed as a process involving mutual creation of electric and magnetic fields. This viewpoint is used to argue that the conventional retarded solutions to electromagnetic wave equations (whose source is a current…
We study the optical response of a 2D square lattice of atoms using classical electrodynamics. Due to dipole-dipole interactions, the lattice atoms polarize as if the lattice were an atom with up to three resonance frequencies, with…
Alkali-metal atomic vapors are the foundation of an ever-growing range of applications, driven by a comprehensive understanding of their interaction with light. In particular, many models have been developed which characterize this…
We study the propagation of a quantum probe light in an ensemble of "3+1"-level atoms when the atoms are coupled to two other classical control fields. First we calculate the dispersion properties, such as susceptibility and group velocity,…
We study the emergence of a collective optical response of a cold and dense $^{87}$Rb atomic cloud to a near-resonant low-intensity light when the atom number is gradually increased. Experimental observations are compared with microscopic…
Due to the recent interest in studying propagation of light through triangular air gaps, we calculate, by using the analogy between optics and quantum mechanics and the multiple step technique, the transmissivity through a triangular air…
We study the photonic interactions between two distant atoms which are coupled by an optical element (a lens or an optical fiber) focussing part of their emitted radiation onto each other. Two regimes are distinguished depending on the…
On the basis of general theoretical results developed previously in JETP 112, 246 (2011) we analyze the atomic polarization created by weak monochromatic light in an optically thick, dense and cold atomic ensemble. We show that the…