Linear and nonlinear light propagations in a Doppler-broadened medium via electromagnetically induced transparency

We present a systematic theoretical study to deal with linear and nonlinear light propagations in a Doppler-broadened three-level Λ system via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), with incoherent population exchange between two lower energy levels taken into account. Through a careful analysis of base state and linear excitation, we show that the EIT condition of the system is given by |Ωc|2γ31>>2γ21ΔωD2, where Ωc is half the Rabi frequency of the control field, ΔωD is the Doppler width, and γjl is the decay rate of the coherence between states |j> and |l>. Under this condition, the effect of incoherent population exchange is insignificant, while dephasing dominates the decoherence of the system. This condition also ensures the validity of the weak nonlinear perturbation theory used in this work for solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations with inhomogeneous broadening. We then investigate the nonlinear propagation of the probe field and show that it is possible to form temporal optical solitons in the Doppler-broadened medium. Such solitons have ultraslow propagating velocity and can be generated in very low light power. The possibility of realizing (1+1)-dimensional and (2+1)-dimensional spatial optical solitons in the adiabatic regime of the system is also discussed.