Investigation of atomic coherence in multilevel systems with embedded tunable dark state superposition

The coherent superposition of two-atomic levels induced by coherent population trapping is employed in the two-level system, the standard three-level Λ type scheme and the four-level N-type systems and a weak probe pulse scans across the system. A theoretical analysis about the response of medium to the probe field is given. It is shown that under different initial conditions, the coherent superposition of the dark state exhibits abundant optical phenomena response to the probe field. It can change the absorption or gain and the dispersion relationship in the medium experienced by the probe. In the embedded three-level scheme, the probe experiences a crossover from absorption to transparent and then to amplification. Consequently the group velocity of the probe pulse can be controlled to propagate either as a subluminal, a standard, a superluminal or even a negative speed. In the embedded four-level N-type system, it can give an enhancement to the Giant Kerr effect and overcome the limitation of two-photon absorption, then make the nonlinear properties of the medium richer than the traditional N-type scheme.