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Physical Review A

Observation of enhanced Rayleigh scattering produced by optical mixing in gases

Jochen Meyer, G. G. Albach

Published Mar 1, 1976• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The effect of mixing two high-power ruby-laser beams in several gases has been investigated by means of light scattering. Coherently scattered light has been observed with intensities of up to three orders of magnitude, exceeding that of incoherent Rayleigh scattered light. The dependence of the effect on laser power, gas density, and refractive index is described. It is shown that for higher pressures (\ensuremath{\sim} 100 Torr) a threshold power exists for the effect, and that saturation is observed with increasing pressure as well as increasing mixing beam power.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.13.1091

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The effect of mixing two high-power ruby-laser beams in several gases has been investigated by means of light scattering. Coherently scattered light has been observed with intensities of up to three orders of magnitude, exceeding that of incoherent Rayleigh scattered light. The dependence of the effect on laser power, gas density, and refractive index is described. It is shown that for higher pressures (\ensuremath{\sim} 100 Torr) a threshold power exists for the effect, and that saturation is observed with increasing pressure as well as increasing mixing beam power.
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering in gases in the kinetic regime. Gas density perturbation waves were generated by two crossing pump laser beams through optical dipole forces. A probe laser beam was then coherently scattered from the perturbation waves. The line shape of the scattered light was modeled using kinetic theory. The model takes into account the internal energy modes of the gas particles and is applicable to both molecular and atomic gases. We discuss the implication of coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering on kinetic theory and photon matter interaction.
The phenomenon of stimulated Rayleigh-wing scattering in anisotropic molecular liquids is analyzed. Representative combinations of polarization for the incident and scattered light are considered. It is shown that in regions where the focused laser beam is intense, saturation occurs in the molecular response to external optical fields, in that perfect alignment of the individual liquid molecules in the optical fields is approached. Accordingly, the nonlinear amplification associated with the stimulated radiation is reduced. The results of the analysis qualitatively explain several important recent observations which are in conflict with previous theroretical predictions. For example, it is shown that the nonlinear gain is considerably greater when the incident light is circularly polarized (the stimulated radiation being circularly polarized in the reverse sense) than it is when the incident light is linearly polarized. Despite saturation, sufficient amplification exists in the former case to allow the efficient conversion of incident to stimulated Rayleigh light at moderate power levels.
Coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering is a four-wave mixing technique that provides information on various physical properties of the scattering medium in the spectral domain. Being based on density gratings generated by dipole forces, the method requires two pump beams of sufficient spectral width to span the full response bandwidth of the scattering medium. We provide experimental data on the scattered spectrum as a function of the coherence between the two pump beams and derive the corresponding pump beam spectrum. We argue that all experiments on coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering to date, have, in fact, been performed in the incoherent regime and show that orders of magnitude in scattering efficiency are to be expected when the experiments are performed with bandwidth-limited picosecond laser pulses.
Molecular nitrogen at 0.8 atm and 300 and 500 K and methane at 0.8 atm and 300 K were subjected to optical lattices formed by narrow-band 532-nm laser pulses with intensities on the optical axis near, but below, the gas ionization limit. A third pulse was introduced to experimentally probe the response, as a function of the lattice velocity, of the gas to the deep monochromatic potential wells formed by the lasers. Coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering (CRBS) line shapes were recorded and compared to numerically predicted magnitudes of the density perturbations induced in the gas. Both experimental results and those from direct simulation Monte Carlo simulations show a deviation from previously published low-intensity CRBS line-shape models. The deviation indicates a trend, as a function of lattice velocity, similar to that relating to previously published energy and momentum transfer calculations for high-intensity lattices. Furthermore, the deviation indicates a maximum intensity at which current CRBS theory is valid.
When a high-intensity laser beam passes through a transparent and homogeneous optical medium, the induced light scattering may manifest the properties of stimulated radiation characterized by threshold requirement, high directionality, and high brightness. This is the stimulated scattering of intense coherent light. Discoveries and studies of various types of stimulated scattering effects have provided a much deeper and more comprehensive understanding of interactions between the intense coherent light and matter. On the other hand, devices based on stimulated Raman scattering, stimulated Brillouin scattering, and stimulated spin-flip Raman scattering can be employed as highly efficient tunable frequency shifters of coherent light. Stimulated Kerr scattering can be used to generate a super-broadband coherent light and to investigate the molecular anisotropy of liquids. In addition, the recently developed stimulated Rayleigh–Bragg scattering and stimulated Mie scattering can significantly reduce the threshold requirement, and provide a highly efficient no-frequency-shift optical phase conjugation wave.
Two-wave mixing allows one to change effectively Intensities, phases, space profiles, polarizations and time evolution of interacting beams [1,21. We will show, that two-wave mixing of partially coherent beams may be used to increase degree of coherence of these beams. The physics of the effect under discussion is as follows: two partially coherent beams write a refraction index grating in a nonlinear medium whose position and profile are practically stationary. Scattering of strong beam on this grating in the direction of the weak one means that this weak beam acquires an addition, that is coherent with the strong beam, thereby increasing degree of coherence of the beams. Similar effects were discussed in connection with scattering of different frequency components at the common running grating [3] and with Interaction of different polarization components [4,5].