Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Wavelength dependence near a degeneracy point of lasing and 4-wave mixing processes in Na vapor
Suzanne Yoakum, Leo Moorman
Abstract
Accurate measurements were made of lasing and 4-wave mixing processes in Na-vapor inside a double heatpipe oven. Scanning Nd:YAG pumped pulsed dye laser through the two-photon resonance 3s{sup 2}S{sub 1/2} {yields} 5s{sup 2}S{sub 1/2}, and a high resolution double-monochromator near the 5s - 4p{sup 2}P{sub 1/2,3/2} single photon resonance, we easily distinguished the two lasing multiplets due to J = {1/2} and 3/2 populations emitting blue 330 nm light. We also observed two other components. By varying the laser polarization, intensity and Na density these were determined to be parametric 4-wave mixing lines with maximum intensity for slight phase mismatch. As the dye laser was scanned, the wavelengths of the lasing and 4-wave mixing peaks shifted, each pair with its own slope, and crossed - a process providing a spectroscopic pump mechanism to populate the {vert_bar}M{sub J} {>=}{vert_bar} + {1/2} > magnetic substate of the ground state. Similar experiments are underway for other 4 wave mixing processes.