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.     

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 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.     

Kerr nonlinearity and EIT in a double Lambda type atomic system

The giant Kerr nonlinearity in a four-level double Lambda type atomic system is theoretically predicted. We find that an enhanced Kerr nonlinearity can be achieved just by the intensity of coupling filed that lies within the transparency window. It is also shown that the giant Kerr nonlinearity with reduced absorption can be achieved by the quantum interference mechanisms.     

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.     

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.     

Observation of large Kerr nonlinearity at low light intensities

We report an experimental observation of large Kerr nonlinearity with vanishing linear susceptibilities in coherently prepared four-level rubidium atoms. Quantum coherence and interference manifested by electromagnetically induced transparency suppress the linear susceptibilities and greatly enhance the nonlinear susceptibilities at low light intensities. The measured Kerr nonlinearity is comparable in magnitude to the linear dispersion in a simple two-level system and is several orders of magnitude greater than the Kerr nonlinearity of a conventional three-level scheme under similar conditions.     

Spectral Hole Burning via Kerr Nonlinearity

Spectral hole burning is investigated in an optical medium in the presence of Doppler broadening and Kerr nonlinearity. The Kerr nonlinearity generates coherent hole burning in the absorption spectrum. The higher order Kerr nonlinearity enhances the typical lamb dip of the hole. Normal dispersion in the hole burning region while Steep anomalous dispersion between the two hole burning regions also enhances with higher order Kerr effect. A large phase shift creates large delay or advancement in the pulse propagation while no distortion is observed in the pulse. These results provide significant steps to improve optical memory, telecom devices, preservation of information and image quality.     

Spectral Hole Burning via Kerr Nonlinearity

Spectral hole burning is investigated in an optical medium in the presence of Doppler broadening and Kerr nonlinearity. The Kerr nonlinearity generates coherent hole burning in the absorption spectrum. The higher order Kerr nonlinearity enhances the typical lamb dip of the hole. Normal dispersion in the hole burning region while Steep anomalous dispersion between the two hole burning regions also enhances with higher order Kerr effect. A large phase shift creates large delay or advancement in the pulse propagation while no distortion is observed in the pulse. These results provide significant steps to improve optical memory, telecom devices, preservation of information and image quality.     

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.     

Control of Group Velocity via Spontaneous Generated Coherence and Kerr Nonlinearity

A four-level N-type atomic medium is considered to study the effect of spontaneous generated coherence(SGC) and Kerr nonlinearity on light pulse propagation. A light pulse is propagating inside the medium where each atom follows four-level N-type atom-field configuration of rubidium(85Rb) atom. The atom-field interaction leads to electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT) process. The atom-field interaction is accompanied by normal dispersion and in the presence of SGC and Kerr nonlinearity the dispersion property of the proposed atomic medium is modified,which leads to enhancement of positive group index of the medium. The enhancement of positive group index then leads to slow group velocity inside the medium. A more slow group velocity is also investigated by incorporated the collective effect of SGC and Kerr nonlinearity. The control of group velocity inside a four-level N-type atomic medium via collective effect of SGC and Kerr nonlinearity is the major part of this work.     

Enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity and its application to entangled state discrimination

In this paper, the recent research on the enhanced Kerr nonlinearity and its application in entangled state discrimination is reported. Two kinds of dynamics, including interacting double dark resonances and spontaneously generated coherence, are presented to enhance the Kerr nonlinearity. The application of Kerr nonlinearity in quantum state discrimination is also discussed. An arbitrary Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state can be discriminated using two-photon polarization parity detection which resorts to cross-Kerr nonlinearity between a single-photon qubit and probe field. In addition, a scheme for Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state discrimination of matter qubits is also proposed using the dipole induced transparency in a cavity-dipole system.      

Surface plasmon polariton at the interface of dielectric and graphene medium using Kerr effect

We theoretically investigate the control of surface plasmon polariton(SPP) generated at the interface of dielectric and graphene medium under Kerr nonlinearity. The controlled Kerr nonlinear signal of probe light beam in a dielectric medium is used to generate SPPs at the interface of dielectric and graphene medium. The positive, negative absorption, and dispersion properties of SPPs are modified and controlled by the control and Kerr fields. A large amplification(negative absorption) is noted for SPPs under the Kerr nonlinearity. The normal/anomalous slope of dispersion and propagation length of SPPs is modified and controlled with Kerr nonlinearity. This leads to significant variation in slow and fast SPP propagation. The controlled slow and fast SPP propagation may predict significant applications in nano-photonics, optical tweezers, photovoltaic devices, plasmonster, and sensing technology.     

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.     

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.     

Control of Group Velocity via Spontaneous Generated Coherence and Kerr Nonlinearity

A four-level N-type atomic medium is considered to study the effect of spontaneous generated coherence (SGC) and Kerr nonlinearity on light pulse propagation. A light pulse is propagating inside the medium where each atom follows four-level N-type atom-field configuration of rubidium (⁸⁵Rb) atom. The atom-field interaction leads to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) process. The atom-field interaction is accompanied by normal dispersion and in the presence of SGC and Kerr nonlinearity the dispersion property of the proposed atomic medium is modified, which leads to enhancement of positive group index of the medium. The enhancement of positive group index then leads to slow group velocity inside the medium. A more slow group velocity is also investigated by incorporated the collective effect of SGC and Kerr nonlinearity. The control of group velocity inside a four-level N-type atomic medium via collective effect of SGC and Kerr nonlinearity is the major part of this work.     

Large Kerr effect in bulk Se-based chalcogenide glasses

High-speed optical communication requires ultrafast all-optical processing and switching capabilities. The Kerr nonlinearity, an ultrafast optical nonlinearity, is often used as the basic switching mechanism. A practical, small device that can be switched with ~1-pJ energies requires a large Kerr effect with minimal losses (both linear and nonlinear). We have investigated theoretically and experimentally a number of Se-based chalcogenide glasses. We have found a number of compounds with a Kerr nonlinearity hundreds of times larger than silica, making them excellent candidates for ultrafast all-optical devices.     

Effective Kerr nonlinearity and two-color solitons in photonic band-gap fibers filled with a Raman active gas

We predict a strong effective Kerr nonlinearity in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers filled with a Raman active gas which exceeds the intrinsic Kerr nonlinearity by 2 orders of magnitude. Two-color bright-bright and dark-bright solitons supported by this nonlinearity are found and the feasibility of their experimental observation is demonstrated.     

Counterpropagating spatial solitons in reflection gratings with a longitudinally modulated Kerr nonlinearity

We investigate quasi-Bragg-matched counterpropagating spatial solitons in a reflection grating in the presence of a longitudinally modulated Kerr nonlinearity. The physical interplay of linear reflection and Kerr self-focusing with the modulation in the nonlinearity yields a variety of elaborate self-action mechanisms. We first analytically predict the existence of symmetric soliton pairs supported by a pure Kerr-like effective nonlinearity. We then analytically derive two families of solitons, associated with the linear grating eigenmodes, supported by an effective "incoherent" Kerr-like coupling arising from the exact balance between the modulation in the nonlinearity and the Kerr interaction due to beam interference.     

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.