Quantum properties of light propagating in a coherent-population-oscillation storage medium

We study the propagation and storage of a quantum field using ultranarrow coherent population oscillations (CPOs) in a Λ-type atomic medium. The predictions for classical fields are checked experimentally in a vapor at room temperature. We derive the evolution of its squeezing spectrum in the presence of a large classical pump field which enables CPOs to exist. We show that the spontaneous emission of the residual population pumped into the excited state progressively destroys the quantum noise properties of the quantum field along propagation. The output quantum field therefore tends to be a coherent state, discarding the possibility to store quantum states of light with CPO.