The electromagnetically induced grating effect in thermal and cold atoms has been studied theoretically. Studies have shown that, by adjusting the parameters, the first-order diffraction efficiency of the probe beam in the cold atomic system and the thermal atomic system is 34% and 31%, respectively, which is very close to the ideal diffraction efficiency of the sinusoidal grating. However, it is more difficult to prepare the cold atomic system than to prepare the thermal atomic system in the practical application, so the study of the electromagnetically induced grating effect in the thermal atomic system may be helpful for practical applications.
An electromagnetically induced grating in a four-level tripod-type atomic system is studied theoretically. By virtue of a weak standing-wave signal field, the phase modulation effectively diffracts a weak probe field into the first-order direction.By changing the weak signal field, the diffraction of the weak probe field can be modulated in real time, and a first-order diffraction efficiency of more than 32% can be obtained with proper parameters. Such a system has a potential application in an all-optical switch controlled by a weak optical signal.
