Interference enhancement of resonant magneto-optical effects

The influence of spectral interference of different nature on resonant Faraday rotation is studied using as examples the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency in pure discrete atomic transitions and the transparency windows of autoionization resonances of gaseous media. A common numerical criterion for a substantial effect of spectral interference and coherence of atomic transitions on magneto-optical phenomena is established. A direct relationship between the polarization ellipse rotation angle of cw monochromatic light and reduction of the light pulse group velocity resulting from a strong frequency dispersion of the resonant refractive index is found. The known experimental data on ultraslow light pulses indicate the possibility of interference enhancement of the Faraday effect by a factor of 10⁶?10⁷.