  This paper presents a quantum mechanical treatment for both atomic and field
fluctuations of an atomic ensemble interacting with propagating fields, either
in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency or in a Raman situation. The atomic
spin noise spectra and the outgoing field spectra are calculated in both
situations. For suitable parameters both EIT and Raman schemes efficiently
preserve the quantum state of the incident probe field in the transfer process
with the atoms, although a single pass scheme is shown to be intrinsically less
efficient than a cavity scheme.
