Effect of magnetic field on a multi window ladder type electromagnetically induced transparency with 87Rb atoms in vapour cell

In this work, we experimentally study the effect of externally applied magnetic field on a ladder type EIT in a vapour cell consisting of Rb-87 atoms. The introduction of magnetic field causes the Zeeman splitting of the hyperfine levels of Rb-87 atoms and hence the number of available windows of transparency increases. We report the observation of nine such windows. Such multi window EIT systems are capable of storing pulses at the different frequencies, corresponding to these windows hence paving the way for realization of multi frequency quantum memories. Also, the total bandwidth of storage is 218.4 MHz which is two orders of magnitude higher than that typically obtained in single window EIT based storage systems. These systems have tremendous applications in the field of speedy transmission of data over a long distance quantum communication channel. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.