Optical Manipulation of Light Scattering in Cold Atomic Rubidium

Abstract

A brief perspective on light scattering in dense and cold atomic rubidium is\npresented. We particularly focus on the influence of auxiliary applied fields\non the system response to a weak and nearly resonant probe field. Auxiliary\nfields can strongly disturb light propagation; in addition to the steady state\ncase, dynamically interesting effects appear clearly in both the time domain,\nand in the optical polarization dependence of the processes. Following a\ngeneral introduction, two examples of features found in such studies are\npresented. These include nonlinear optical effects in (a) comparative studies\nof forward- and fluorescence-configuration scattering under combined excitation\nof a control and probe field, and (b) manipulation of the spatial structure of\nthe optical response due to a light shifting strong applied field.\n