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Applied Physics Letters

Molecular-optic modulator

Kazuki Ihara, Chihiro Eshima, Shin-ichi Zaitsu, Singo Kamitomo, Kenji Shinzen, Yasuyuki Hirakawa, Totaro Imasaka

Published Feb 13, 2006• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An ultrafast light-intensity modulator, based on stimulated Raman scattering, is described. The intensity of a continuous wave laser is fully modulated at 17THz using hydrogen in a high-finesse cavity. The modulation frequency is determined by the molecular constant of the Raman medium, i.e., the Raman shift frequency. The modulation frequency can be changed in the tetrahertz range by replacing the Raman medium. Due to the accurate modulation frequency and the high beam coherence, this device is amenable to a variety of applications such as in basic science and also in advanced industrial technology.

DOI
10.1063/1.2174091

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An ultrafast light-intensity modulator, based on stimulated Raman scattering, is described. The intensity of a continuous wave laser is fully modulated at 17THz using hydrogen in a high-finesse cavity. The modulation frequency is determined by the molecular constant of the Raman medium, i.e., the Raman shift frequency. The modulation frequency can be changed in the tetrahertz range by replacing the Raman medium. Due to the accurate modulation frequency and the high beam coherence, this device is amenable to a variety of applications such as in basic science and also in advanced industrial technology.
We demonstrate an optical modulator at a frequency of 90 THz that has the capability to modulate any laser beam in the optical region of the spectrum. The modulator is constructed by placing deuterium molecules inside a high-finesse cavity and driving a vibrational transition with two continuous-wave laser beams. The two beams, the pump and the Stokes, are resonant with the cavity. The high intra-cavity intensities that build up drive the molecules to a coherent state. This molecular coherence can then be used to modulate an independent laser beam, to produce frequency up-shifted and down-shifted sidebands. The beam to be modulated is not resonant with the cavity and thus the sidebands are produced in a single pass.
We suggest a technique where a molecular Raman transition is prepared near a maximally coherent state with continuous-wave (CW) laser beams. The key idea is to put the molecules inside a high-finesse cavity and to drive the molecular transition with two lasers whose frequency difference is slightly detuned from the Raman resonance. In this regime, the molecules become very efficient CW modulators with a modulation frequency that can be as high as 100THz100\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{THz}100THz.
We suggest that subfemtosecond pulses can be generated by using high-order stimulated Raman scattering when a Raman transition is driven by three intense single-mode laser beams with two different modulation frequencies. An oscillatory strong Raman coherence is established by the modulated molecular modulation. Numeric simulations based on the first fundamental vibrational Raman transition of gaseous and solid deuterium indicate that subfemtosecond pulses can be generated by Raman excitations with above, below, or opposite Raman detunings.
We propose the extension of existing molecular modulation techniques for continuous-wave optical modulation to Raman-active microresonators. Intense pump and Stokes modes inside a microresonator prepare a high coherence of the Raman transition between two ro-vibrational states. With the coherence prepared, any laser in the optical region can be coupled to the microresonator and be modulated. We perform numerical simulations which predict that these "microresonator-based molecular modulators" could have modulation efficiencies on the order of 1% at 10 THz-scale frequencies for any optical wavelength.