Vapor cell light modulator

Claim 1

AN OPTICAL DEVICE COMPRISING A LIGHT CELL HAVING A LIGHT MEDIUM THEREIN, SAID MEDIUM HAVING THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS: (1) A GROUND STATE (2) AN EXCITED STATE (3) EXHIBITS SPLITTING INTO A PLURALITY OF ZEEMAN LEVELS UPON THE APPLICATION TO SAID MEDIUM OF A WEEK STATIC MAGNETIC FIELD (4) ONE OF SAID LEVELS IS A PHOTON RELATIVELY NONABSORBING LEVEL TO A PUMPING RADIATION, MEANS PROVIDING A WEAK STATIC MAGNETIC FIELD FOR APPLICATION TO SAID MEDIUM TO CAUSE SAID SPLITTING, A SOURCE OF A BEAM OF PUMPING RADIATION FOR ILLUMINATING SAID MEDIUM TO CAUSE ZEEMAN TRANSITION OF SUBSTANTIALLY ALL OF THE ATOMS OF SAID MEDIUM TO SAID NONABSORBING LEVEL WHEREBY SAID NON-ABSORBING LEVEL BECOMES HIGHLY POPULATED AND SAID MEDIUM BECOMES TRANSLUCENT TO SAID PUMPING RADIATION, A SOURCE OF A BEAM OF DEPUMPING RADIATION FOR ILLUMINATING SAID MEDIUM TO CAUSE SAID NON-ABSORBING LEVEL TO BECOME DE-POPULATED SAID MEDIUM TO BECOME SUBSTANTIALLY OPAQUE TO SAID PUMPING RADIATION AND MEANS TO CONTROL SAID RADIATIONS, THE DIRECTION OF SAID MAGNETIC FIELD BEING THE SAME AS THE DIRECTION OF PROPAGATION OF SAID PUMPING RADIATION, SAID DEPUMPING RADIATIONS BEING OF SUBSTANTIALLY INDENTICAL FREQUENCY AND DIRECTION OF POLARIZATION, SAID DEPUMPING RADIATION BEING PROPAGATED IN THE DIRECTION AT RIGHT ANGLES TO SAID FIELD DIRECTION.