  We investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, the phenomenon of
polarization rotation of a weak, linearly-polarized optical (probe) field in an
atomic system with multiple three-level electromagnetically induced
transparency (EIT) sub-systems. The polarization rotation angle can be
controlled by a circularly-polarized coupling beam, which breaks the symmetry
in number of EIT subsystems seen by the left- and right-circularly-polarized
components of the weak probe beam. A large polarization rotation angle (up to
45 degrees) has been achieved with a coupling beam power of only 15 mW.
Detailed theoretical analyses including different transition probabilities in
different transitions and Doppler-broadening are presented and the results are
in good agreements with the experimentally measured results.
