Influence of external magnetic field on electromagnetically induced grating in a degenerate two-level atomic medium

In this work, the external magnetic field is employed as a “knob” to transfer the light energy from the zero-order diffraction to the high-order diffractions of electromagnetically induced grating in a degenerate two-level atomic medium. Under a standing-wave coupling field, the diffraction of the probe beam is created with the diffraction pattern including zero-, first- and second-order diffractions. When the magnetic field is not applied, the absorption grating is formed based on amplitude modulation of the transmission function; most of the probe light energy is focused on the zero-order diffraction (about 70%) and only about 6% of the first-order diffraction. However, when the external magnetic field is applied, the phase grating is formed based on the phase modulation of transmission function; the probe light energy is transferred from zero-order diffraction to first- and second-order diffractions, in which the first-order diffraction efficiency can be obtained about 32% with proper magnetic field strength. Moreover, the probe light energy can also be transferred from zero-order diffraction to first- and second-order diffractions by adjusting the frequency and/or the intensity of the coupling and probe fields in the presence of external magnetic field.