Selection and cloning of optical patterns with a cold Rydberg atomic gas

Abstract

We show that optical patterns formed in a cold Rydberg atomic gas working at the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) can be selected by using a weakly modulated control laser field. We also show that the (hexagonal, stripe, square, etc.) patterns prepared in one probe laser field can be cloned onto another one with a high fidelity via a double EIT.