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Physical Review Letters

Quantum Fluctuations in the Stimulated-Raman-Scattering Linewidth

David C. MacPherson, R. C. Swanson, John L. Carlsten

Published Jul 4, 1988• 56 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Measurements of the single-shot power spectrum of stimulated Raman scattering from an ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ Raman generator at 10 and 32 atm using a Fabry-Perot interferometer are presented. The results show that the single-shot linewidth can be much narrower than the ensemble average predicted by quantum mechanics. However, when the spectra of numerous shots are averaged together the resulting linewidth is in close agreement with the predicted result. In addition, the power spectrum exhibits large shot-to-shot fluctuations within the gain-narrowed profile which may be related to observed soliton decay in stimulated Raman scattering.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.61.66

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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1988•0 citations
Measurements of the single-shot power spectrum of stimulated Raman scattering from an H2{\mathrm{H}}_{2}H2​ Raman generator at 10 and 32 atm using a Fabry-Perot interferometer are presented. The results show that the single-shot linewidth can be much narrower than the ensemble average predicted by quantum mechanics. However, when the spectra of numerous shots are averaged together the resulting linewidth is in close agreement with the predicted result. In addition, the power spectrum exhibits large shot-to-shot fluctuations within the gain-narrowed profile which may be related to observed soliton decay in stimulated Raman scattering.
Measurements on soliton decay in stimulated Raman scattering have led to the study of frequency fluctuations in the single shot Stokes linewidth. These spectral measurements show that the spectrum of a single shot can be considerably narrower than the gain narrowed profile predicted by quantum mechanics for the ensemble average. However when spectra of many shots are averaged together the predicted result is recovered. The fluctuations seen are thought to be related to the quantum fluctuations associated with the initiating spontaneous emission. Theoretical results based on coherent mode theory are shown to be in agreement with the data.
Recent studies have shown that single-shot spectra in stimulated Raman scattering can be much narrower than the quantum-mechanical gain-narrowed linewidth. However, shot-to-shot fluctuations in the single-shot spectra are such that the ensemble average gives the gain-narrowed linewidth. This happens because the mean frequencies of the single-shot spectra fluctuate from shot to shot under the gain-narrowed linewidth, and because some ``noisy'' shots are broadened or display multipeaked spectra. The nature of these quantum-noise-initiated fluctuations will be discussed in this paper, with both numerical and experimental results presented. Noisy, multipeaked, single-shot spectra will be shown to have a broader distribution of mean frequencies than the distribution of near-Fourier-transform-limited spectra.
Studies of quantum noise initiated stimulated Raman scattering in H2 show that single shot Stokes spectra can be narrower than the quantum mechanical gain narrowed linewidth. The ensemble average of these single shot spectra, however, agrees quite well with the quantum mechanical prediction.1 Additionally, the mean frequencies of near Fourier transform-limited shots have a narrower distribution than the distribution of means of the entire ensemble. We present evidence in support of these statements as well as presenting arguments that yield a qualitative understanding of these results.
Results from a study of quantum noise and its macroscopic manifestations in stimulated Raman scattering are presented.Shot to shot fluctuations in quantum noise initiated Stokes spectra are considered.The Stokes spectra were recorded experimentally using a Fabry-Perot interferometer.For comparison, numerically generated Stokes spectra were produced using the semi-classical model of stimulated Raman scattering with a numerically generated "vacuum" input field.The amount of structure on each spectrum was quantified by calculating the spectrum's standard deviation from its mean frequency.It was found that ensembles with the noisy spectra removed had narrower distributions of mean frequencies than ensembles that included noisy spectra.
In our studies of soliton formation in stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), we have discovered that a fully quantum mechanical theory predicts large shot-to-shot fluctuations in the SRS power spectrum, which leads to soliton decay. This theory, which includes a Langevin operator to simulate collision-induced fluctuations and maintain operator consistency, can be used to generate the statistics of the macroscopic SRS output. We have also studied a simpler model which uses a random vacuum field as an input to the semiclassical SRS equations. The vacuum field was numerically generated by summing a set of electromagnetic field modes that spanned the collisional Raman linewidth. Each mode was separated in frequency by less than the resolution of the system and given a random phase for each shot. Despite the lack of Langevin terms, the shot-to-shot variations and two-frequency correlation function from the simple approach were essentially indistinguishable from the fully quantum mechanical theory. This suggests that a simulation of SRS from spontaneous emission does not always require Langevin terms in the quantum noise.