In this article, we study the optical response of a duplicated two-level atomic medium subjected to a stationary control field and a weak co-propagating probe field, orthogonally polarized to each other. We show that both the reflected and transmitted components of the probe can be absorbed or amplified. Furthermore, for moderate optical depths, the reflection and transmission factors are controlled by the relative phase between the control and probe fields, making the configuration we present here promising for the development of optical devices. We also determine the exact conditions under which reflection and transmission factors can be controlled by the relative phase between the control and probe fields.

We report on the efficient design of quantum optimal control protocols to manipulate the motional states of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our protocols operate on the momentum comb associated with the lattice. In contrast to previous works also dealing with control in discrete and large Hilbert spaces, our control schemes allow us to reach a wide variety of targets by varying a single parameter, the lattice position. With this technique, we experimentally demonstrate a precise, robust and versatile control: we optimize the transfer of the BEC to a single or multiple quantized momentum states with full control on the relative phase between the different momentum components. This also allows us to prepare the BEC in a given eigenstate of the lattice band structure, or superposition thereof.