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Physical Review A

Saturable nonlinear refraction in hot atomic vapor

Colin F. McCormick, Daniel R. Solli, R. Y. Chiao, J. Miguel Hickmann

Published Feb 12, 2004• 40 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Atomic vapors make flexible and useful nonlinear optical media when light is detuned far from resonances. However, few direct measurements of their nonlinear coefficients have been performed to date. We present a measurement of the Kerr coefficient for various detunings to both the red and blue of the $D2$ line in hot atomic rubidium vapor. Saturation effects complicate the interpretation of the standard z-scan method, but a simple saturation model agrees well with our data. We find values of ${n}_{2}\ensuremath{\approx}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}/\mathrm{W}$ for 1 GHz detunings from the $D2$ line.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.69.023804

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Atomic vapors are systems well suited for nonlinear optics studies but very few direct measurements of their nonlinear refractive index have been reported. Here we use the zzz-scan technique to measure the Kerr coefficient, n2{n}_{2}n2​, for a Cs vapor. Our results are analyzed through a four-level model, and we show that coherence between excited levels as well as cross-population effects contribute to the Kerr nonlinearity.
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