Simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability in a coherent atomic vapour

A new quantum optical mechanism to realize simultaneously negative electric permittivity and magnetic permeability is suggested. In order to obtain a negative permeability, we choose a proper atomic configuration that can dramatically enhance the contribution of the magnetic-dipole allowed transition via the atomic phase coherence. It is shown that the atomic system chosen with proper optical parameters can give rise to striking electromagnetic responses （leading to a negative refractive index） and that the atomic vapour becomes a left-handed medium in an optical frequency band. Differing from the previous schemes of artificial composite metamaterials （based on classical electromagnetic theory） to achieve the left-handed materials, which consist of anisotropic millimetre-scale composite structure units, the left-handed atomic vapour presented here is isotropic and homogeneous at the atomic-scale level. Such an advantage may be valuable in realizing the superlens （and hence perfect image） with left-handed atomic vapour.