Optically induced diffraction gratings based on periodic modulation of linear and nonlinear effects for atom-light...

We investigate the quantum linear and nonlinear effects in a novel five-level quantum system placed near a plasmonic nanostructure. Such a quantum scheme contains a double-V-type subsystem interacting with a weak probe field. The double-V-subsystem is then coupled to an excited state by a strong coupling field, which can be a position-dependent standing-wave field. We start by analyzing the first-order linear as well as the third and fifth order nonlinear terms of the probe susceptibility by systematically solving the equations for the matter-fields. When the quantum system is near the plasmonic nanostructure, the coherent control of linear and nonlinear susceptibilities becomes inevitable, leading to vanishing absorption effects and enhancing the nonlinearities. We also show that when the coupling light involves a standing-wave pattern, the periodic modulation of linear and nonlinear spectra results in an efficient scheme for the electromagnetically induced grating (EIG). In particular, the diffraction efficiency is influenced by changing the distance between the quantum system and plasmonic nanostructure. The proposed scheme may find potential applications in future nanoscale photonic devices.