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In this study, we report on the fractional Talbot effect of nonparaxial self-accelerating beams in a multilevel electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) atomic configuration, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first study on this subject. The Talbot effect originates from superposed eigenmodes of the Helmholtz equation and forms in the EIT window in the presence of both linear and cubic susceptibilities. The Talbot effect can be realized by appropriately selecting the coefficients of the beam components. Our results indicate that the larger the radial ifference between beam components, the stronger the interference between them, the smaller the Talbot angle is. The results of this study can be useful when studying optical imaging, optical measurements, and optical computing.

In an atomic vapor, a honeycomb lattice can be constructed by utilizing the three-beam interference method. In the method, the interference of the three beams splits the dressed energy level periodically, forming a periodic refractive index modulation with the honeycomb profile. The energy band topology of the honeycomb lattice can be modulated by frequency detunings, thereby affecting the appearance (and disappearance) of Dirac points and cones in the momentum space. This effect can be usefully exploited for the generation and manipulation of topological insulators., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We demonstrate the photonic Floquet topological insulator (PFTI) in an atomic vapor with nonlinear susceptibilities. The interference of three coupling fields splits the energy levels periodically to form a periodic refractive index structure with honeycomb symmetry that can be adjusted by the choice of frequency detunings and intensities of the coupling fields, which all affect the appearance of Dirac cones in the momentum space. When the honeycomb lattice sites are helically ordered along the propagation direction, we obtain a PFTI in the atomic vapor in which an obliquely incident beam moves along the zigzag edge without scattering energy into the PFTI, due to the confinement of the edge states. The appearance of Dirac cones and the formation of PFTI is strongly affected by the nonlinear susceptibilities; i.e. the PFTI can be shut off by the third-order nonlinear susceptibility and re-opened up by the fifth-order one., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

We experimentally demonstrate dressed multi-wave mixing (MWM) and the reflection of the probe beam due to electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) grating can coexist in a five-level atomic ensemble. The reflection is derived from the photonic band gap (PBG) of EIA grating, which is much broader than the PBG of EIT grating. Therefore, EIA-type PBG can reflect more energy from probe than EIT-type PBG does, which can effectively affect the MWM signal. The EIA-type as well as EIT-type PBG can be controlled by multiple parameters including the frequency detunings, propagation angles and powers of the involved light fields. Also, the EIA-type PBG by considering both the linear and third-order nonlinear refractive indices is also investigated. The theoretical analysis agrees well with the experimental results. This investigation has potential applications in all-optical communication and information processing., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

We demonstrate that beams originating from Fresnel diffraction patterns are self-accelerating in free space. In addition to accelerating and self-healing, they also exhibit parabolic deceleration property, which is in stark contrast to other accelerating beams. We find that the trajectory of Fresnel paraxial accelerating beams is similar to that of nonparaxial Weber beams. Decelerating and accelerating regions are separated by a critical propagation distance, at which no acceleration is present. During deceleration, the Fresnel diffraction beams undergo self-smoothing, in which oscillations of the diffracted waves gradually focus and smooth out at the critical distance.

We investigate numerically the interactions of two in-phase and out-of-phase Airy beams and nonlinear accelerating beams in Kerr and saturable nonlinear media, in one transverse dimension. We find that bound and unbound soliton pairs, as well as single solitons, can form in such interactions. If the interval between two incident beams is large relative to the width of their first lobes, the generated soliton pairs just propagate individually and do not interact. However, if the interval is comparable to the widths of the maximum lobes, the pairs interact and display varied behavior. In the in-phase case, they attract each other and exhibit stable bound, oscillating, and unbound states, after shedding some radiation initially. In the out-of-phase case, they repel each other and after an initial interaction, fly away as individual solitons. While the incident beams display acceleration, the solitons or soliton pairs generated from those beams do not., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We investigate numerically the dynamics of optical vortex beams carrying different topological charges, launched in a dissipative three level ladder type nonlinear atomic vapor. We impose the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) condition on the medium. Linear, cubic, and quintic susceptibilities, considered simultaneously with the dressing effect, are included in the analysis. Generally, the beams slowly expand during propagation and new vortices are induced, commonly appearing in oppositely charged pairs. We demonstrate that not only the form and the topological charge of the incident beam, but also its growing size in the medium greatly affect the formation and evolution of vortices. We formulate common rules for finding the number of induced vortices and the corresponding rotation directions, stemming from the initial conditions of various incident beams, as well as from the dynamical aspects of their propagation. The net topological charge of the vortex is conserved during propagation, as it should be, but the total number of charges is not necessarily same as the initial number, because of the complex nature of the system. When the EIT condition is lifted, an enhancement region of beam dynamics if reached, in which the dynamics and the expansion of the beam greatly accelerate. In the end, we discuss the liquid like behavior of light evolution in this dissipative system and propose a potential experimental scheme for observing such a behavior., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables

In a numerical investigation, we demonstrate the existence and curious evolution of vortices in a ladder-type three-level nonlinear atomic vapor with linear, cubic, and quintic susceptibilities considered simultaneously with the dressing effect. We find that the number of beads and topological charge of the incident beam, as well as its size, greatly affect the formation and evolution of vortices. To determine the number of induced vortices and the corresponding rotation direction, we give common rules associated with the initial conditions coming from various incident beams., Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures