Decoherence effects in an electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light experiment

This article develops a model that shows the effects of decoherence originating from both dephasing and population relaxation on rubidium vapor in the electromagnetically induced transparency regime. This article quantifies the effect of decoherence on the large Faraday rotation, susceptibility, transmission, population, and coherence relationships of the system. The model derived in this article is in excellent agreement with experimental results [H. Gao, M. Rosenberry, J. Wang, and H. Batelaan, J. Phys. B 38, 1857 (2005)]. The total decoherence rate for the experiment has been found by fitting the experimental data to the model. This article also includes a discussion of other types of experiments that this model could be adapted to, such as dipole-induced transmission and the detection of single atoms.