  We develop a theoretical framework for the exploration of quantum mechanical
coherent population transfer phenomena, with the ultimate goal of constructing
faithful models of devices for classical and quantum information processing
applications. We begin by outlining a general formalism for weak-field quantum
optics in the Schr\"{o}dinger picture, and we include a general
phenomenological representation of Lindblad decoherence mechanisms. We use this
formalism to describe the interaction of a single stationary multilevel atom
with one or more propagating classical or quantum laser fields, and we describe
in detail several manifestations and applications of electromagnetically
induced transparency. In addition to providing a clear description of the
nonlinear optical characteristics of electromagnetically transparent systems
that lead to ``ultraslow light,'' we verify that -- in principle -- a
multi-particle atomic or molecular system could be used as either a low power
optical switch or a quantum phase shifter. However, we demonstrate that the
presence of significant dephasing effects destroys the induced transparency,
and that increasing the number of particles weakly interacting with the probe
field only reduces the nonlinearity further. Finally, a detailed calculation of
the relative quantum phase induced by a system of atoms on a superposition of
spatially distinct Fock states predicts that a significant quasi-Kerr
nonlinearity and a low entropy cannot be simultaneously achieved in the
presence of arbitrary spontaneous emission rates. Within our model, we identify
the constraints that need to be met for this system to act as a one-qubit and a
two-qubit conditional phase gate.
