Beam splitting and Hong-Ou-Mandel interference for stored light

Storing and release of a quantum light pulse in a medium of atoms in the tripod configuration are studied. Each of these operations is realized by switching on and off two sets of properly chosen control fields. The system constitutes a kind of a flexible beam splitter in which the input and output ports concern photons of the same direction but well separated in time. A version of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is discussed. It is also shown that a stored nonclassical light is split into two nonclassical beams, with their statistical properties being steered by a choice of the control fields.