Persistent currents of superfluidic light in a four-level coherent atomic medium

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the superfluidic properties of light propagating in a four-level coherent atomic medium. The model is derived under the paraxial approximation in the form of a generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation and features spatially controllable and quantum-enhanced optical properties, which can offer new possibilities in the field of optical analogue systems. In particular, we use this versatility to study the dynamics of an optical vortex beam confined in a nontrivial connected geometry, finding numerical evidence of another superfluidic signature analogue: the persistent current of light. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America