Temporal profile of biphotons generated from a hot atomic vapor and the spectrum of electromagnetically induced transparency

We systematically studied the temporal profile of biphotons, pairs of time-correlated single photons, generated from a hot atomic vapor via the spontaneous four-wave mixing process. The measured temporal width of biphoton wave packet or two-photon correlation function against the coupling power was varied from about 70 to 580 ns. We derived an analytical expression of the biphoton's spectral profile in the Doppler-broadened medium. The analytical expression reveals that the spectral profile is mainly determined by the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and behaves like a Lorentzian function with a linewidth approximately equal to the EIT linewidth. Consequently, the biphoton's temporal profile influenced by the Doppler broadening is an exponential-decay function, which was consistent with the experimental data. Employing a weak input probe field of classical light, we further measured the EIT spectra under the same experimental conditions as those in the biphoton measurements. The theoretical predictions of the biphoton wave packets calculated with the parameters determined by the classical-light EIT spectra are consistent with the experimental data. The consistency demonstrates that in the Doppler-broadened medium, the classical-light EIT spectrum is a good indicator for the biphoton's temporal profile. The measured biphoton's temporal widths well approximated the predictions of the analytical formula based on the biphoton's EIT effect. This study provides an analytical way to quantitatively understand the biphoton's spectral and temporal profiles in the Doppler-broadened medium.

Automated summary

In this study, the temporal profile of biphotons generated from a hot atomic vapor via four-wave mixing was systematically studied. An analytical expression of the biphoton's spectral profile in the Doppler-broadened medium was derived. The study found that the spectral profile is mainly determined by the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and the biphoton's temporal profile influenced by the Doppler broadening is an exponential-decay function.