AbstractMulti-gigahertz mechanical vibrations that stem from interactions between light fields and matter—known as acoustic phonons—have long been a subject of research. In recent years, specially designed functional devices have been developed to enhance the strength of the light-matter interactions because excitation of acoustic phonons using a continuous-wave laser alone is insufficient. However, the strength of the interaction cannot be controlled appropriately or instantly using these structurally-dependent enhancements. Here we show a technique to control the effective interaction strength that does not operate via the material structure in the spatial domain; instead, the method operates through the structure of the light in the time domain. The effective excitation and coherent control of acoustic phonons in a single-mode fiber using an optical frequency comb that is performed by tailoring the optical pulse train. This work represents an important step towards comb-matter interactions.
Control of Four-Level Quantum Coherence via Discrete Spectral Shaping of an Optical Frequency Comb
