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We have studied electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in diatomic cesium molecules in a vapor cell by using tunable diode lasers. We have observed a sub-natural Lambda-resonance in an absorption molecular band at different cesium vapor pressures. The width of the EIT resonance shows a linear dependence on cesium vapor pressure. Narrow Lambda-resonances in molecules can be used as frequency references for femtosecond laser frequency combs., 7 pages, 3 figures

We have studied the intensity correlations between two orthogonally linearly polarized components of a laser field propagating through a resonant atomic medium. These experiments have been performed in a Rubidium atomic vapor. We observe that the correlations between the orthogonally polarized components of the laser beam are maximal in the absence of a magnetic field. The magnitude of the correlations depends on the applied magnetic field, and the magnitude first decreases and then increases with increasing magnetic field. Minimal correlations and maximal rotation angles are observed at the same magnetic fields. The width of the correlation function is directly proportional to the excited state lifetime and inversely proportional to the Rabi frequency of laser field. These results can be useful for improving optical magnetometers and for optical field or atomic spin squeezing., 8 pages, 4 figures

We have experimentally demonstrated an ultra-dispersive optical prism made from coherently driven Rb atomic vapor. The prism possesses spectral angular dispersion that is six orders of magnitude higher than that of a prism made of optical glass; it is the highest spectral angular dispersion that has ever been shown (such angular dispersion allows one to spatially resolve light beams with different frequencies separated by a few kHz). The prism operates near the resonant frequency of atomic vapor and its dispersion is optically controlled by a coherent driving field.

Motivated by the recent experiment [V.A. Sautenkov, Yu.V. Rostovtsev, and M.O. Scully, Phys. Rev. A 72, 065801 (2005)], we develop a theoretical model in which the field intensity fluctuations resulted from resonant interaction of a dense atomic medium with laser field having finite bandwidth. The intensity-intensity cross correlation between two circular polarized beams can be controlled by the applied external magnetic field. A smooth transition from perfect correlations to anti-correlations (at zero delay time) of the outgoing beams as a function of the magnetic field strength is observed. It provides us with the desired information about decoherence rate in, for example, $^{87}$Rb atomic vapor.

We have experimentally observed switching between photon-photon correlations (bunching) and anti-correlations (anti-bunching) between two orthogonally polarized laser beams in an EIT configuration in Rb vapor. The bunching and anti-bunching sswitching occurs at a specific magnetic field strength., 4 pages and 3 figures

We report the observation of small group velocities of order 90 meters per second, and large group delays of greater than 0.26 ms, in an optically dense hot rubidium gas (~360 K). Media of this kind yield strong nonlinear interactions between very weak optical fields, and very sharp spectral features. The result is in agreement with previous studies on nonlinear spectroscopy of dense coherent media.