Abstract We report experimental evidence of degenerate mirrorless lasing in the forward direction under excitation of a dilute atomic Rb vapor with a single linearly polarized cw laser light resonant with cycling F e > F g atomic D 2 transitions. Light polarized orthogonally to the laser light is generated for the input light intensity exceeding a threshold value of ∼3 mW cm −2 . Application of a transverse magnetic field directed along the input light polarization reveals a sharp ∼20 mG wide magnetic resonance centered at B = 0. Increasing the incident light intensity from 3 to 300 mW cm −2 , the generated light undergoes rapid amplitude increase followed by a decline and resonance broadening. Such nonlinear behavior of the observed magnetic resonance is attributed to the population inversion on optical transitions between magnetic sublevels established under linearly polarized excitation. We present observations that indicate that a combination of nonlinear-optical effects occurs in this system, including degenerate mirrorless lasing and four-wave mixing.
Abstract We report experimental evidence of degenerate mirrorless lasing in the forward direction under excitation of a dilute atomic Rb vapor with a single linearly polarized cw laser light resonant with cycling F e > F g atomic D 2 transitions. Light polarized orthogonally to the laser light is generated for the input light intensity exceeding a threshold value of ∼3 mW cm −2 . Application of a transverse magnetic field directed along the input light polarization reveals a sharp ∼20 mG wide magnetic resonance centered at B = 0. Increasing the incident light intensity from 3 to 300 mW cm −2 , the generated light undergoes rapid amplitude increase followed by a decline and resonance broadening. Such nonlinear behavior of the observed magnetic resonance is attributed to the population inversion on optical transitions between magnetic sublevels established under linearly polarized excitation. We present observations that indicate that a combination of nonlinear-optical effects occurs in this system, including degenerate mirrorless lasing and four-wave mixing.
Mirrorless lasing has been a topic of particular interest for about a decade due to promising new horizons for quantum science and applications. In this work, we review first-principles theory that describes this phenomenon, and discuss degenerate mirrorless lasing in a vapor of Rb atoms, the mechanisms of amplification of light generated in the medium with population inversion between magnetic sublevels within the D2 line, and challenges associated with experimental realization.
Theoretical predictions were made for the steady-state gain of an orthogonally polarized probe field in a degenerate two-level alkali atom system driven by a linearly polarized continuous-wave pump field in [Opt. Mem. Neural Networks 32 (Suppl 3), S443-S446 (2023)]. Employing linear response theory, we computed the probe absorption spectrum under conditions where the pump was detuned from resonance. The results revealed a sub-natural linewidth dispersive feature near the pump resonance, characterized by both gain and absorption. Furthermore, a distinct pure gain peak emerged at a sideband associated with a dressed-state transition. These phenomena are generally absent outside the ultracold regime due to inhomogeneous broadening, primarily from Doppler effects, which obscure the fine spectral structure. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the sideband gain peak is sustained in the warm vapor regime when both the pump Rabi frequency and detuning exceed the Doppler width, ΩP>ΔP≫ΔDop. Our results can enable degenerate mirrorless lasing in thermal alkali atom vapors, offering a significant enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio for fluoroscopic remote magnetic sensing applications. The theoretical model studied in this paper is also a complete description of atomic vapors with isolated J=2→J′=3 transitions, such as atomic samarium.
Nonlinear resonances in alkali metal vapor, which are detected by the magneto-optical rotation of the linear polarization of light, are actively used in quantum magnetometry to fabricate atomic magnetometers. The magneto-optical rotation in most such sensors is due to magnetic birefringence, and rotation angles usually do not exceed tens of milliradians. In this work, an experiment where magneto-optical resonances of linear polarization rotation of a probe wave are due to strong dichroism induced in a medium by a counterpropagating pump wave has been proposed. Both waves are in resonance with the Fg = 2 → Fe = 1 optical transition in the 87Rb D1 line (λ ≈ 795 nm). Experiments have been carried out with a 2-cm-long cylindrical cell filled with a buffer gas, and the maximum rotation angle is ≈390 mrad (22°) at a width of resonance of about 300 nT. The results show that the configuration proposed for the observation of magneto-optical rotation is promising for the fabrication of compact high-sensitivity atomic magnetometers.
Nonlinear resonances in alkali metal vapor, which are detected by the magneto-optical rotation of the linear polarization of light, are actively used in quantum magnetometry to fabricate atomic magnetometers. The magneto-optical rotation in most such sensors is due to magnetic birefringence, and rotation angles usually do not exceed tens of milliradians. In this work, an experiment where magneto-optical resonances of linear polarization rotation of a probe wave are due to strong dichroism induced in a medium by a counterpropagating pump wave has been proposed. Both waves are in resonance with the Fg = 2 → Fe = 1 optical transition in the 87Rb D1 line (λ ≈ 795 nm). Experiments have been carried out with a 2-cm-long cylindrical cell filled with a buffer gas, and the maximum rotation angle is ≈390 mrad (22°) at a width of resonance of about 300 nT. The results show that the configuration proposed for the observation of magneto-optical rotation is promising for the fabrication of compact high-sensitivity atomic magnetometers.
Nonlinear magneto-optical resonances on the hyperfine transitions belonging to the D2 line of rubidium were changed from bright to dark resonances by changing the laser power density of the single exciting laser field or by changing the vapor temperature in the cell. In one set of experiments atoms were excited by linearly polarized light from an extended cavity diode laser with polarization vector perpendicular to the light's propagation direction and magnetic field, and laser-induced fluorescence was observed along the direction of the magnetic field, which was scanned. A low-contrast bright resonance was observed at low laser power densities when the laser was tuned to the ${F}_{g}=2\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}_{e}=3$ transition of 87Rb and near to the ${F}_{g}=3\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}_{e}=4$ transition of 85Rb. The bright resonance became dark as the laser power density was increased above 0.6 mW/cm2 or 0.8 mW/cm2, respectively. When the ${F}_{g}=2\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}_{e}=3$ transition of 87Rb was excited with circularly polarized light in a second set of experiments, a bright resonance was observed, which became dark when the temperature was increased to around 50${}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\circ}}$C. The experimental observations at room temperature could be reproduced with good agreement by calculations based on a theoretical model, although the theoretical model was not able to describe measurements at elevated temperatures, where reabsorption was thought to play a decisive role. The model was derived from the optical Bloch equations and included all nearby hyperfine components, averaging over the Doppler profile, mixing of magnetic sublevels in the external magnetic field, and a treatment of the coherence properties of the exciting radiation field.
In this work, we present a set of experiments involving four-wave mixing processes in rubidium atoms. We employ several experimental configurations exploring two- and three-level systems in cascade or Λ configurations, all of which are in a copropagating geometry, to investigate different physical phenomena present in each scenario. In the first experiment, we combine a cw diode laser and a 1 GHz femtosecond pulse train to generate coherent blue light through the four-wave mixing process in hot rubidium vapor. The generated coherent signal is analyzed by scanning either the diode frequency or the repetition rate of the frequency comb. In both cases, the cw laser induces an Autler- Townes splitting with a wide separation in the doublet structure due to the configuration of copropagating fields. To model these results, we employ the density matrix formalism to write the Bloch equations and solve them numerically. The solutions allow us to explore other cases beyond those involving our experimental setup, comparing the response of the upper-level population and the generated signal coherence for homogeneously and non-homogeneously broadened systems. Moreover, in this same experiment, we also observed an unexpected interference effect between excitation routes of the four-wave mixing process when the repetition rate of the pulse train is scanned. The theoretical model demonstrates that the interfering effect appears only when the repetition rate is carefully chosen to produce a pair of modes of the frequency comb resonant with both one- and two-photon transitions for the same atomic velocity group. In the second experiment, still with a hot rubidium vapor, we explore two symmetrical degenerate four- wave mixing signals induced by two almost copropagating laser beams, with~ka and~kb wave-vectors, and detected simultaneously in the 2~ka −~kb and 2~kb −~ka directions. Each spectrum has a single peak with a short frequency separation between them, which our model indicates is due to the nonlinear behavior of the refractive indexes, a consequence of the high intensity of both input fields. Finally, we use the same experimental setup for the two symmetrical signals to study the field intensity fluctuations of the degenerate four-wave mixing signals and the transmission signals. In this case, the sample is an ensemble of cold rubidium atoms in a magneto-optical trap. There is an intensity- intensity cross-correlation between the signals due to the resonant phase-noise to amplitude-noise conversion. In this type of cold system, we can neglect the Doppler- broadening, allowing a straightforward study of the dependency of the correlations on the laser detuning. In these measurements, we observe a type of oscillation in the correlation curves that the theoretical model indicates to be connected with Rabi oscillations, revealed by the fluctuations long after the transient period.