1/N-Expansion for the Dicke model and the decoherence program

An analysis of the Dicke model, N two-level atoms interacting with a single radiation mode, is done using the Holstein-Primakoff transformation. The main aim of the paper is to show that, changing the quantization axis with respect to the common usage, it is possible to prove a general result either for N or the coupling constant going to infinity for the exact solution of the model. This completes the analysis, known in the current literature, with respect to the same model in the limit of N and volume going to infinity, keeping the density constant. For the latter the proper axis of quantization is given by the Hamiltonian of the two-level atoms and for the former the proper axis of quantization is defined by the interaction. The relevance of this result relies on the observation that a general measurement apparatus acts using electromagnetic interaction and so, one can state that the thermodynamic limit is enough to grant the appearance of classical effects. Indeed, recent experimental results give first evidence that superposition states disappear interacting with an electromagnetic field having a large number of photons.     

Quantum phase-space description of light polarization

We present a method to characterize the polarization state of a light field in the continuous-variable regime. Instead of using the abstract formalism of SU(2) quasidistributions, we model polarization as the superposition of two harmonic oscillators of the same angular frequency along two orthogonal axes, much in the classical way of dealing with this variable. By describing each oscillator by an s-parametrized quasidistribution, we derive in a consistent way the final function for the polarization. We compare with previous approaches and show how this formalism works in some relevant examples.     

The new matrix and the polarization state of the transmitted light through the cholesteric liquid crystal

The cholesteric liquid crystal can be regarded as a multilayer that consists of many layer uniaxial thin films that exhibit optical rotation. For the convenient discussion of the polarization states of the transmitted wave through a cholesteric liquid crystal, a new 2×2 matrix is given, in which the matrix element is changed into the complex exponential. Here we discuss the treatment process of this method in detail and its role in the investigation of the polarization states. Using this method we easily study the polarization states of the transmitted wave. The calculated results show that the polarization states of wave will be changed when it propagates along the cholesteric liquid crystal.     

Polarization distributions and degree of polarization for quantum Gaussian light fields

We examine polarization properties of electromagnetic field states with Gaussian complex-amplitude distributions, such as quadrature coherent and squeezed states, thermal chaotic states, and two-mode squeezed vacuum states. We compute their polarization distribution and we apply to them diverse measures of degree of polarization and polarization fluctuations. This allows us to investigate the main properties of the degrees of polarization introduced so far.     

A temporal-coherence anisotropy of unpolarized light

We analyze the anisotropic behavior of unpolarized, temporally partially coherent light. We demonstrate that unpolarized light with different intrinsic degrees of coherence can present an anisotropic behavior which is experimentally observable while it is not the case if both intrinsic degrees are equal. This behavior is analyzed in comparison with the standard anisotropy property of partially polarized light.     

Control of group velocity of light via magnetic field

We have theoretically studied the effects of quantum coherence in a driven quasi-degenerate two-level atomic system. We have shown that the quantum interference, which can be destructive or constructive, can be controlled by an externally applied magnetic field allowing one to implement both electromagnetically induced transparency and electromagnetically induced absorption in the same atomic system. Determined by frequency dispersion of the index of refraction of the system, the group velocity of light pulses ranges from ultra-slow to superluminal with changing of the magnitude of the magnetic field.     

Optical Properties of Plasmon Resonances with Ag/SiO2/Ag Multi-Layer Composite Nanoparticles

Optical properties of plasmon resonance with Ag/SiO2/Ag multi-layer nanoparticles are studied by numerical simulation based on Green＇s function theory. The results show that compared with single-layer Ag nanoparticles, the multi-layer nanoparticles exhibit several distinctive optical properties, e.g. with increasing the numbers of the multi-layer nanoparticles, the scattering efficiency red shiRs, and the intensity of scattering enhances accordingly. It is interesting to find out that slicing an Ag-layer into multi-layers leads to stronger scattering intensity and more ＂hot spots＂ or regions of stronger field enhancement. This property of plasmon resonance of surface Raman scattering has greatly broadened the application scope of Raman spectroscopy. The study of metal surface plasmon resonance characteristics is critical to the further understanding of surface enhanced Raman scattering as well as its applications.     

Theory of speckle displacement and decorrelation with electronic correlation

The paper deals with the determination of small deformation tensor components by means of an optical experimental method, which utilizes statistical properties of the speckle field in optically free space. The term “deformation tensor” is introduced and the relationship between the small deformation tensor components and the cross-correlation function of two intensity speckle patterns in free-space is analyzed. Furthermore, experimental arrangements for measurement of rotation, deformation, and translation, and their sensitivity and accuracy analyses are also presented.     

Coherent control of a light field with electromagnetically induced transparency in a dark state Raman coherent tripod system

A dark state superposition is employed and formed a tripod-like system. A weak probe pulse propagates in it can experience a crossover from absorption to transparent and then to amplification, and its group velocity can be controlled in any desired speed by determining the initial states of the dark state superposition.     

Delay limit of slow light in an optical fiber

We show that coherent population oscillations effect produces a very narrow spectral hole in the absorption spectrum. The large dispersion of the refractive index associated with this hole permits us to achieve a group velocity as low as 1496.25 m/s at room temperature in an erbium-doped fiber. When the input intensity is equal to the saturation intensity, the dispersion is optimal. The optimal dispersion corresponds to the maximum fractional delay. Therefore, the input intensity can be used as a control parameter to increase the fractional delay. Our theoretical results based on population oscillation agree very well with the experimental data. In addition, we confirm that the spectral hole experiences power broadening for optical fibers of different lengths.     

Multicolor Talbot effect and control of polychromatic light patterns in modulated photonic lattices

We analyze propagation of polychromatic light patterns in modulated photonic lattices created with arrays of periodically curved coupled optical waveguides. We demonstrate that in waveguide arrays with specially designed modulation periodic recurrences of input light patterns produced by white-light and supercontinuum sources can be realized, e.g., through multicolor Talbot effect.     

Property of Image-Object Using TE/TM-polarized Wave in the Near-Field Optics with CCGM-FFT

Discretization of the Lippmann-Schwinger integral equation with complex conjugate gradient method and fast Fourier transform （CCGM-FFT） is solved, which can reduce the memory storage and the CPU time compared with the traditional method, MOM. Thus objects with large size and multiple scattering objects could be simulated with CCGM-FFT. The total intensity and the distribution of each field component of the dielectric and metallic objects under the excitation of the TE//TM-polarized wave are calculated with photon scanning tunnelling microscopy （PSTM） at the constant height. The simulating results are analysed and explained reasonably. The results show that the polarization plays an important role for imaging of PSTM.     

Ground State of Jaynes-Cummings Model: Comparison of Solutions with and without the Rotating-Wave Approximation

The eigenenergy spectrum of the Jaynes-Cummings （JC） model with and without the rotating-wave approx- imation （RWA） is investigated. The numerical analysis indicates that the non-RWA spectrum can only be approximated by the RWA in the range of sufficiently small coupling constant and detuning. In other region, the counter-rotating terms remarkably change the nature of the RWA energy spectrum. A simple expression with high accuracy for ground eigenenergy and eigenvector non-RWA shows that the ground state is not a dark state state. for non-RWA is available. The ground eigenvector for and very different from that of RWA which is a dark state.     

Probability theory of intensity correlation in ghost imaging with thermal light

To well reveal the imaging mechanism of ghost imaging (GI) with thermal light, we propose a probability theory using more general assumptions than existing theoretical explanations that the reference patterns obey an arbitrary identical distribution and the objects are of grayscale. It is not limited to a specific correlation function, even multi-functional variants of reference patterns can be used in correlation calculation. We have proven in both theory and experiments that the reconstruction means are linear transformations of original object's gray values and the probabilities of recovered pixel values in the pixel region of the same original gray value follow a Gaussian distribution, whose variance explains the appearance of reconstruction noise. We also derive the relationship between pattern variance and contrast-to-noise ratio under noisy conditions, which will be instructive for better pattern construction. This work will deepen the understanding of GI and enrich intensity correlation forms.     

Photoelectron angular distributions of molecules in bichromatic laser fields of circular polarization

Photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) from above-threshold ionization of O₂ and N₂ molecules irradiated by a bichromatic laser field of circular polarization are studied. The bichromatic laser field is specially modulated such that it can be used to mimic a sequence of one-cycle laser pulses. The PADs are greatly affected by the molecular alignment, the symmetry of the initial electronic distribution, and the carrier-envelope phase of the laser pulses. Generally, the PADs do not show any symmetry, and become symmetric about an axis only when the symmetric axis of laser field coincides with the symmetric axis of molecules. This study shows that the few-cycle laser pulses can be used to steer the photoelectrons and perform the selective ionization of molecules.     

Effect of spontaneously generated coherence on probe response in an open system

The effect of spontaneously generated coherence on the probe response in an open ladder atomic system with equispaced levels is studied. The result shows that by adjusting the strength of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC), electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and high dispersion (index of refraction) with zero absorption can be realized, a much larger gain without inversion (GWI) than that without SGC can be obtained. Moreover, in the open system and for some strength of SGC, GWI without the incoherent pumping is much larger than that with the incoherent pumping; however, in the corresponding closed system, when the incoherent pumping is absent, we cannot obtain any gain (with or without inversion) for any strength of SGC. In addition, the manipulation role of the atomic exit and injection rates on SGC-dependent absorption property is analyzed for the case when the incoherence pumping does not exist.     

Comparison of transient process between open and closed ladder-type systems with spontaneously generated coherence and incoherent pumping

We theoretically investigated transient response of open and closed three-level ladder-type atomic system with or without the spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) which could be satisfied with the help of an incoherent pumping. The existence of the SGC effect makes the open and closed system to be distinguished. We compared transient response of weak probe between open and closed system and found that transient properties exhibit different features by adjusting some related parameters, such as the relative phase between probe and coupling fields, the angle between two dipole moments.     

Cross spectral purity and its influence on ghost imaging experiments

Pseudo-thermal light has been widely used in ghost imaging experiments. In order to understand the differences between the pseudo-thermal source and thermal source, we propose a method to investigate whether a light source has cross spectral purity (CSP), and experimentally measure the cross spectral properties of the pseudo-thermal light source in near-field and far-field zones. Moreover we present a theoretical analysis of the cross spectral influence on ghost imaging.     

Dynamic control of light propagation and optical switching through an RF-driven cascade-type atomic medium

We study nonlinear optical behaviors in pulse propagation through a medium consisting of four-level cascade-type cold atoms, where a radio-frequency (RF) field couples upper two-folded levels and double-dark resonances (DDRs) can arise. By numerically solving the coupled Bloch-Maxwell equations for atom and field simultaneously in space and time, we demonstrate dynamic control of light propagation and optical switching in such a four-level atomic medium. The proposed scheme may have potential applications in the design of optical switching and optical storage devices.     

The origin of the super-resolution via a nonlinear thin film

In laser applications, resolutions beyond the diffraction limit can be obtained with a thin film of strong optical nonlinear effect. The optical index of the silicon thin film is modified with the incident laser beam as a function of the local field intensity n(r)∼E²(r). For ultrathin films of thickness d?λ, the transmitted light through the film forms a profile of annular rings. Therefore, the device can be related to the realization of super-resolution with annular pupils. Theoretical analysis shows that the focused light spot appears significantly reduced in comparison with the diffraction limit that is determined by the laser wavelength and the numerical aperture of the converging lens. Analysis on the additional optical transfer function due to the thin film confirms that the resolving power is improved in the high spatial frequency region.