Coherent transient optical pulse-shape storage/recall using frequency-swept excitation pulses

We demonstrate that frequency-chirped laser excitation pulses may be employed to generate coherent transient signals possessing the same temporal profile as a particular excitation pulse. In comparison with the short, fixed-frequency pulses used in previous studies of this effect, chirped pulses can be temporally longer, of lower intensity, and hence easier to generate. The experiment was performed on the 555.6-nm transition of vapor-phase atomic ytterbium, and pulse-shape information was stored in a coherence between excited-state Zeeman levels. A simple theoretical analysis of our results is presented.