Birefringence and polarization rotator induced by electromagnetically induced transparency in rare earth ion-doped crystals

The birefringence induced by the electromagnetically induced transparency effect in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\hbox {Pr}^{3+}:\hbox {Y}_2 \hbox {SiO}_5$$\end{document} crystal was studied by using a balanced polarimeter technique. The results show that it is possible to control the polarization state of the output probe beam by adjusting the experimental conditions. Particularly, the coherently prepared Pr3+:Y2SiO5\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\hbox {Pr}^{3+}:\hbox {Y}_2 \hbox {SiO}_5$$\end{document} crystal can serve as a polarization rotator for a linearly polarized input probe beam at the two-photon resonant condition. Such coherent control on the polarization of light should be useful for polarization-based classical and quantum information processing such as all-optical switching, polarization preserving light pulse memory and polarization qubits based on rare earth ion-doped solids.