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Applied Physics Letters

A thin atomic vapor as a nonlinear optical medium

B. Ai, David S. Glassner, R. J. Knize, J. P. Partanen

Published Feb 21, 1994• 29 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate efficient degenerate four-wave mixing in a 10 μm cell of cesium atomic vapor using resonant light. This thin atomic vapor can be utilized for processing high resolution images in a joint transform optical correlator. A figure of merit is presented showing that thin atomic vapors can perform optical correlation of images using fewer photons than other materials.

DOI
10.1063/1.110970

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Optics Letters•Dec 15, 1994•8 citations
We demonstrate efficient degenerate four-wave mixing in a 10 μm cell of cesium atomic vapor using resonant light. This thin atomic vapor can be utilized for processing high resolution images in a joint transform optical correlator. A figure of merit is presented showing that thin atomic vapors can perform optical correlation of images using fewer photons than other materials.
We obtain the correlation pattern between two amplitude-modulated input images of 36 and 280 random black and white pixels, using the standard degenerate four-wave-mixing geometry of 852-nm optical beams in a 1-mm-thick cesium-vapor cell. The total optical input power is 3.2 mW to obtain 0.4 nW of power in the correlation pattern. We verified that the buildup time of the four-wave-mixing signal is ~30 ns. Using the random patterns, we analyze the performance of the cesium optical correlator in terms of the number of pixels that can be processed and the number of photons per pixel used. We show how to scale our experimental results for the efficiency of the cesium correlator to images containing a larger number of pixels.
Resonant cw degenerate four-wave mixing signals usually are not observed at noncycling transitions in alkali-metal vapors due to population depletion from optical pumping. We demonstrate that frequent atom-wall collisions can overcome the effects of optical pumping when atomic vapors are contained in thin cells. Significantly enhanced degenerate four-wave mixing signals are observed at noncycling transitions, and they are comparable in magnitude to the signals observed at cycling transitions in thin cells. This technique extends the utilization of degenerate four-wave mixing to noncycling transitions in atoms or molecules.
Abstract Nonlinear optics has been a very dynamic field of research with spectacular phenomena discovered mainly after the invention of lasers. The combination of high intensity fields with resonant systems has further enhanced the nonlinearity with specific additional effects related to the resonances. In this paper we review a limited range of these effects which has been studied in the past decades using close-to-room-temperature atomic vapors as the nonlinear resonant medium. In particular we describe four-wave mixing and generation of nonclassical light in atomic vapors. One-and two-mode squeezing as well as photon correlations are discussed. Furthermore, we present some applications for optical and quantum memories based on hot atomic vapors. Finally, we present results on the recently developed field of quantum fluids of light using hot atomic vapors.