Giant Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level atomic medium

The linear and nonlinear response of a driven four-level Λ-type atomic system with two fold lower-levels with three driving fields is investigated. It is found that the giant Kerr nonlinearity can be achieved just by tuning the intensity of coupling fields. Maximal Kerr nonlinearity with zero linear and nonlinear absorption enters the EIT window. Also it is found that the relative phase between applied fields can change the Kerr nonlinearity behavior.     

Controllable Kerr nonlinearity with vanishing absorption in a four-level inverted-Y atomic system

The giant enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level inverted-Y atomic system is investigated theoretically. Compared with that generated in a generic three-level system, the Kerr nonlinearity can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude with vanishing linear absorption. The physical mechanism leading to the giant enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity is also discussed.     

Enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity with vanishing absorption in a tripod scheme

The giant enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level tripod type system is investigated theoretically. By tuning the value of the Rabi frequency of the coherent control field, owing to the double dark resonances, the giant-enhanced Kerr nonlinearity can be achieved within the right transparency window. The influence of Doppler broadening is also discussed.     

Enhanced Kerr nonlinearity via quantum interference from spontaneous emission

A novel atom configuration is proposed for a giant Kerr nonlinearity in zero linear and nonlinear probe absorption. It is shown that without coherent control field and just by quantum interference of spontaneous emission, a giant Kerr nonlinearity can be obtained.     

Giant Kerr Nonlinearity for Three-Coupled-Quantum-Well Nanostructures

A four level ladder scheme is employed for the realization of slow light large Kerr nonlinear indices in an asymmetric semiconductor three-coupled-quantum-well (TCQW) structure based on intersubband transitions. It is shown that a giant Kerr nonlinearity accompanied with negligible loss can be achieved by properly tuning the intensity of the control fields. A dressed state analysis is given to explain the origin of such a transparency based on slow light enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in this solid medium. In addition, we show that the three-photon detuning plays the important role in enhancing the third-order nonlinearity of the TCQW medium, and may provide new possibilities for technological applications in nonlinear optics and optical switching.     

Giant Kerr nonlinearity induced by interacting dark resonances

A scheme for giant enhancement of the Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level system with double dark resonances is proposed. Compared with that generated in a single-dark-resonance system, the Kerr nonlinearity can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude with vanishing linear absorption. We attribute this dramatic enhancement to the interaction of dark resonances.     

Giant Kerr nonlinearity induced by interacting quantum coherences from decays and incoherent pumping

A scheme for generating the giant enhancement of the Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level system with the quantum coherences from the decays and the incoherent pumping is proposed.Compared with that generated in a general fourlevel system,the Kerr nonlinearity can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude with vanishing linear absorption.By using the numerical results,we show that the remarkable enhancement should be attributed to the interaction of the quantum coherences from the decays and the incoherent pumping.     

Enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity at long wavelength in a quantum dot nanostructure

The giant Kerr nonlinearity with reduced linear and nonlinear absorption in a four-level quantum dot by employing the tunnel coupling is investigated. It is shown that by enhancement of tunnel coupling value the Kerr nonlinearity increases and at the same time linear and nonlinear absorption reduces at the long wavelength which is very important for communicational applications. Enhanced of Kerr nonlinearity in a double quantum dots is investigated. It is found that the electron tunneling has an essential role to reducing the linear absorption and increasing the Kerr nonlinearity at long wavelength.     

Tailoring optical nonlinearities via the Purcell effect

We predict that the effective nonlinear optical susceptibility can be tailored using the Purcell effect. While this is a general physical principle that applies to a wide variety of nonlinearities, we specifically investigate the Kerr nonlinearity. We show theoretically that using the Purcell effect for frequencies close to an atomic resonance can substantially influence the resultant Kerr nonlinearity for light of all (even highly detuned) frequencies. For example, in realistic physical systems, enhancement of the Kerr coefficient by one to two orders of magnitude could be achieved.     

Tunneling induced transparency and giant Kerr nonlinearity in multiple quantum dot molecules

The linear absorption and the Kerr nonlinearity of multiple quantum dots molecules controlled by the tunneling rather than the laser fields are investigated. The tunneling between the dots can induce multiple transparency windows. By varying the energy splitting of the excited states and the tunneling intensity, the width of the tunneling induced transparency windows can be narrowed. Within the narrowed transparency windows, the steep dispersion profile of the probe field makes it possible to enhance the Kerr nonlinearity. Therefore more than one probe fields with different frequencies can acquire giant Kerr accompanied by vanishing absorption simultaneously.     

Effect of spontaneously generated coherence on Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level atomic system

We propose a scheme for giant enhancement of the Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level atomic system in which spontaneously generated coherence is present. The physics mechanism of the enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity is mainly based on the presence of an extra atomic coherence induced by the spontaneously generated coherence. Numerical values obtained by solving the density matrix equations agree well with these exact analytical values.     

Spatial Thirring-type solitons via electromagnetically induced transparency

We show that the giant Kerr nonlinearity in the regime of electromagnetically induced transparency in vapor can give rise to the formation of Thirring-type spatial solitons, which are supported solely by cross-phase modulation that couples the two copropagating light beams.     

Polarization qubit phase gate in a coupled quantum-well nanostructure

We show that a giant Kerr nonlinearity with a relatively large cross phase modulation (CPM) phase-shift can be used for realizing polarization quantum phase gate based on the nonlinear optical response in a coupled semiconductor double quantum well (SDQW) structure via intersubband transitions.     

Enhancing Kerr nonlinearity via quantum interference from incoherent pumping

The effect of quantum interference from incoherent pump field on the Kerr nonlinearity of V- and Lambda-type three-level systems is investigated. It is found that enhanced Kerr nonlinearity can be obtained via quantum interference of incoherent pump field. It is also demonstrated that the enhanced Kerr nonlinearity is located in the reduced-absorption region. The enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity is attributed mainly to the presence of extra atomic coherence induced by quantum interference from incoherent pump field.     

Giant Kerr nonlinearity in an n-doped semiconductor quantum well

A scheme for enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity with vanishing linear and nonlinear absorption in a three-level ladder-configuration n-doped semiconductor quantum well is proposed. It is shown that the Kerr nonlinearity can be controlled and even enhance by the intensity of coupling fields. Also, phase control of Kerr nonlinearity is then discussed.     

Controllable Kerr Nonlinearity with Perfect Transparency in the Existence of Spontaneously Generated Coherence

We investigate the Kerr nonlinearity of a V-type three-level atomic system where the upper two states decay outside to another state and hence spontaneous generated coherence may exist. It is shown that dark state and hence perfect transparency present under certain conditions. Meanwhile, the Kerr nonlinearity can be controlled by manipulation of the decay rates and the splitting of the two excited states. Therefore, enhanced Kerr nonlinearity without absorption can be obtained under proper parameters.     

Enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity via spontaneously generated coherence in a four-level N-type atomic system

A theoretical investigation is carried out into the effect of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) on Kerr nonlinearity of a four-level N-type system. It’s found that the Kerr nonlinearity can be obviously enhanced with SGC present. We attribute the enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity mainly to the generation of extra coherences induced by the superposition of the two SGC channels, and when the superposition is controlled by the interference between two SGC channels properly, the maximal Kerr nonlinearity does not only enter the electromagnetically induced transparency window as the spontaneous generated coherences intensify, but also gets enhanced about 10 times with very large SGC coefficients than that with no SGC effect.     

Nonlinear limits on bandwidth at the minimum dispersion in optical fibres

High bit rate systems can be achieved by operating at the wavelength of zero second order dispersion in optical fibres. The bandwidth is then limited by higher order dispersion terms. We consider the propagation of high intensity pulses in such a system, where the Kerr effect cannot be ignored. It is shown that the bandwidth is further limited by the optical nonlinearity.     

Enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in a negative refractive atomic medium

The Kerr nonlinearity of a left-handed material is analyzed in a four-level atomic system.It is shown that,due to the effect of quantum interference,a large enhanced Kerr nonlinearity accompanied by vanishing absorption can be realized via choosing appropriate parameters in this negative refraction atomic medium.It not only shows the large nonlinearity but also acts as the phase and amplitude compensating effects.     

Polarization phase gate and three-photon GHZ state using coherently enhanced Kerr nonlinearity

We study the nonlinear optical response of a five-level atomic system in the regimes of electromagnetically induced transparency and coherent Raman gain, corresponding to two different schemes of light-atom interaction. Our analytical and numerical results show that greatly enhanced Kerr nonlinearity and efficient cross phase modulation may be achieved between a weak probe field and a weak signal field. The cross phase modulation via Kerr nonlinearity is then exploited toward the realization of a polarization quantum phase gate and the generation of a three-photon GHZ state.