Electromagnetically induced transparency; writing, storing, and reading short optical pulses

The spatiotemporal propagation dynamics of a weak probe pulse in an optically dense medium of three-level atoms is studied in the adiabatic approximation under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. The atomic coherence induced at the dipole-forbidden transitions is found to be spatially localized. This effect is used for the analysis of the reversible writing (reading) of short optical pulses. The method of pulse time reversal is suggested.