Slow-light information conversion in a rare-earth-ion-doped solid

We report the experimental observation of a slow-light information conversion via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a rare-earth-ion-doped solid. Under the EIT-based slow-light regime, by manipulating the spectrum of the control fields, the slowed light pulse is transformed into two different frequency-spatial channels. The pulse shapes and energies in two output channels are further studied. This slow-light information conversion can be used as a controllable frequency-spatial multiplexing of the quantum state of the optical field and will be important in information processing and all-optical networks. (paper)