Resonant Dipole-Dipole Interactions in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

Abstract

Resonant dipole-dipole interaction (RDDI) is ubiquitous in light-matter interacting systems and is responsible for many fascinating properties of collective radiations. Here we theoretically investigate the role of RDDI in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The resonant dipole-dipole interactions manifest in the cooperative spontaneous emission of the probe light transition, which give rise a broadened linewidth and associated collective frequency shift. This cooperative linewidth originates from the nonlocal and long-range RDDI, which can be determined by the atomic density, optical depth, and macroscopic length scales of the atomic ensemble. We present that EIT spectroscopy essentially demonstrates all-order multiple scattering of RDDI. Furthermore, we find that EIT transparency window becomes narrower as the cooperative linewidth increases, which essentially reduces the storage efficiency of slow light as EIT-based quantum memory application.