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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M15743/01
Title: GIANT KERR NON-LINEARITIES AND SINGLE PHOTON CAVITY CONTROL IN LASER COOLED RUBIDIUM
Principal Investigator: Marangos, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Segal, Professor D
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Physics
Organisation: Imperial College London
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 1998 Ends: 30 September 2001 Value (£): 30,660
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Atoms & Ions Optical Phenomena
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
This proposal is for an experimental and theoretical investigation of atomic coherence effects produced when two or more laser beams irradiate an atom, and to demonstrate how these effects can be used to enable a single photon to control the transmission of an optical cavity. The proposal exploits and combines two physical processes; i. The loss-free transmission and exceptionally large dispersion of a resonant probe beam in the presence of another coherent 'coupling' beam (electromagnetically induced transparency) , and ii. The control of a phase of a probe laser by the intensity of a 'signal' beam, i.e. the Kerr effect. The experimental work will be carried out in a rubidium magneto-optical trap thereby taking advantage of the Doppler-free properties of laser cooled atoms. The very large signal-induced phase shifts (i.e. giant Kerr non-linearities) will be of interest in experimental tests of quantum measurement theory where it is useful to be able to deduce the intensity of a 'signal' beam by making direct measurements of the phase of a 'meter' beam, i.e. quantum nondemolition measurements. Single photon cavity control could have applications to the development of optical logic gates for quantum computing and cryptology.
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Organisation Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk