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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Atomic self-trapping and self-focusing in a light medium

Weiping Zhang, Barry C. Sanders, Weihan Tan

Published May 1, 1997• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Light-induced dipole-dipole interactions in a coherent atomic field result in an effective nonlinear interaction between atoms. This nonlinearity can induce self-focusing and self-trapping of a coherent atomic beam undergoing propagation through a travelling-wave laser beam; we show how such a scheme could be realized and evaluate the critical density required for atomic self-focusing and self- trapping. An analogy to optical self-focusing and self- trapping is discussed.

DOI
10.1117/12.273765

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Light-induced dipole-dipole interactions in a coherent atomic field result in an effective nonlinear interaction between atoms. This nonlinearity can induce self-focusing and self-trapping of a coherent atomic beam undergoing propagation through a travelling-wave laser beam; we show how such a scheme could be realized and evaluate the critical density required for atomic self-focusing and self- trapping. An analogy to optical self-focusing and self- trapping is discussed.
The deleterious effects of dispersion on a propagating coherent atomic pulse, along the axis of a traveling-wave laser beam, can be ameliorated by the nonlinear self-interacting force due to dipole-dipole coupling between atoms. We show that a wide atomic pulse with a particular profile can retain its shape during propagation and, moreover, the momentum of the pulse increases due to photon absorption. For the wide soliton case, we demonstrate analytically that the self-interacting atomic force scales inversely with the third power of the pulse width.
The interaction of copropagating electromagnetic and matter waves is described with a set of coupled higher-order nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations. Optical self-focusing modulates an initially planar wave leading to the generation of dipole forces on the atoms. Atomic channeling due to the dipole forces leads, in the nonlinear regime, to filamentation of the atomic beam. Instability growth rates are calculated for atomic beams with both low and high phase space densities. In one transverse dimension an exact solution is found that describes a coupled optical and atomic soliton.
Optical pumping of atomic vapors can lead to self-focusing of resonant laser beams. The saturation of the optical pumping process at low intensity allows the study of transverse solitons in the form of self-trapped laser beams, using low-power cw lasers. The long lifetime of the optically pumped atoms allows the atomic diffusion to transport the excitation away from the interaction region. Numerical simulations show that the resulting nonlocal response of the medium represents an important mechanism that stabilizes the self-trapped beam. The theoretical predictions are confirmed by experimental results from sodium vapor.
We present a theoretical investigation of optical self-focusing effects in light scattering with condensates. Using long (>200 µ s), red-detuned pulses we show numerically that a non-negligible self-focusing effect is present that causes rapid optical beam width reduction as the scattered field propagates through a medium with an inhomogeneous density distribution. The rapid growth of the scattered field intensity and significant local density feedback positively to further enhance the wave generation process and condensate compression, leading to highly efficient collective atomic recoil motion.
A comprehensive model of intense laser light propagation in a fully saturable medium is presented. This model employs the Maxwell-Bloch equations for a two-level atomic system. Light propagating through a medium creates intensity-dependent index of refraction gradients that reduce to a Kerr nonlinearity only for a weak field. When the laser detuning is positive, self-induced index gradients cause the beam to self-focus. Stationary filaments occur when self-focusing exactly balances diffraction. There exists a unique set of two-dimensional fundamental (and higher mode) solutions for which the filament transverse profile (not Gaussian in general) depends on the following quantities: density of saturable absorbers, laser detuning from resonance, laser power, and natural linewidth. (In contrast the Kerr solution does not have a unique filament diameter.) Emphasis will be placed on propagation of Gaussian incident beams; deviations from the stationary solution in either shape or power generally give rise to oscillating spatial patterns, including donutlike profiles, or beam breakup.