Transient coherence of media under strong phase modulation exploiting electromagnetically induced transparency

When quantum systems are shifted faster than their transition and coupling time scales, their susceptibility is dramatically modified. We measure the optical susceptibility of a strongly modulated electromagnetically induced transparency system. Time vs detuning plots for different pump modulation frequencies reveal a transition between an adiabatic regime where a series of smooth pulses are created and a nonadiabatic regime where a strong transient oscillating response is added. Applying a magnetic field lifts the hyperfine level degeneracy, revealing an interference effect between the different magnetic level transients. We explore the dynamics of the magnetic and nonmagnetic cases and discuss their coherent nature. We finally combine the global phase of the transmitted pulses with the transient interference to achieve broadband magnetic sensing without losing the sensitivity of a single electromagnetically induced transparency line.