Self-induced transparency and giant nonlinearity in doped photonic crystals

Photonic crystals doped with resonant atoms allow for uniquely advantageous nonlinear modes of optical propagation: (a) Self-induced transparency (SIT) solitons and multi-dimensional localized "bullets" propagating at photonic band gap frequencies. These modes can exist even at ultraweak intensities (few photons) and therefore differ substantially either from solitons in Kerr-nonlinear photonic crystals or from SIT solitons in uniform media. (b) Cross-coupling between pulses exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and SIT gap solitons. We show that extremely strong correlations (giant cross-phase modulation) can be formed between the two pulses. These features may find applications in high-fidelity classical and quantum optical communications.