Experimental observation of electromagnetically induced transparency in Nd3+:LaF3 crystal

Coherent interactions of laser fields with resonant atomic and molecular transitions significantly modify optical characteristics of the medium via quantum interference between transition amplitudes. This interference can result in reduction or enhancement of the laser absorption, decrease of the group velocity of the laser pulse etc. The origin of all these processes is electromagnetically induced transparency. This effect is intensively investigated in the connection with its multiple applications: lasing without inversion, group velocity control, quantum optical storage and quantum computing, effective nonlinear interactions of low field intensities, high-precision measurements, spectroscopy and metrology, plasma diagnostics, atomic clock etc.