Experimental constraints of using slow-light in sodium vapor for light-drag enhanced relative rotation sensing

We report on experimental observation of electromagnetically induced transparency and slow-light (vg ≈ c/607) in atomic sodium vapor, as a potential medium for a recently proposed experiment on slow-light enhanced relative rotation sensing [Shahriar et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. (submitted for publication), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0505192.]. We have performed an interferometric measurement of the index variation associated with a two-photon resonance to estimate the dispersion characteristics of the medium that are relevant to the slow-light based rotation sensing scheme. We also show that the presence of counter-propagating pump beams in an optical Sagnac loop produces a backward optical phase conjugation beam that can generate spurious signals, which may complicate the measurement of small rotations in the slow-light enhanced gyroscope. We identify techniques for overcoming this constraint. Conclusions reached from the results presented here will pave the way for designing and carrying out an experiment that will demonstrate the slow-light induced enhancement of rotation sensing.