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Physical Review Letters

Observation of Optical Tristability in Sodium Vapors

S. Cecchi, Giovanni Giusfredi, E. Petriella, P. Salieri

Published Dec 27, 1982• 81 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical tristability via optical pumping has been observed in the transmission of a Fabry-Perot interferometer containing Na vapor irradiated by light from a cw dye laser on the high-frequency wing of the ${D}_{1}$ line. For linearly polarized incident light, three stable states appear in the polarization of the transmitted light: ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{+}$ dominant, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ dominant, and linear polarization.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.49.1928

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Optical tristability via optical pumping has been observed in the transmission of a Fabry-Perot interferometer containing Na vapor irradiated by light from a cw dye laser on the high-frequency wing of the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line. For linearly polarized incident light, three stable states appear in the polarization of the transmitted light: \ensuremathσ+{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{+}\ensuremathσ+​ dominant, \ensuremathσ\ensuremath−{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremathσ\ensuremath−​ dominant, and linear polarization.
It is predicted with use of a simplified model that a Fabry-Perot cavity filled with atoms with Zeeman sublevels in the ground state should exhibit optical tristability via optical pumping. For linearly polarized incident light, three stable states appear in the polarization of the transmitted light; ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{+}$ dominant, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ dominant, and linear polarizations. This optical tristability is discussed in the context of a butterfly catastrophe.
We report the observation of transverse optical bistability (TOB) in a sodium-filled Fabry-P\'erot resonator, pumped by circularly polarized light, nearly resonant with the D1{\mathit{D}}_{1}D1​ line, in the presence of a buffer gas, for low vapor density. A sequence of circularly symmetric patterns, ascribable to superpositions of resonator modes, is obtained. The appearance of TOB can be explained in terms of a self-induced intensity-dependent lens formed in the medium by the interaction with the laser light. A simple model that considers the transverse diffusion of the atoms inside the cell provides predictions in good qualitative agreement with the observations.