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Physical Review Letters

Observation of continuous-wave self-oscillation due to pressure-induced two-wave mixing in sodium

D. Grandclément, G. Grynberg, M. Pinard

Published Jul 6, 1987• 102 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Collisional damping can induce a coupling between two nonresonant light beams propagating in an atomic vapor. This coupling is sufficiently important to induce a gain process for a weak probe beam interacting with an intense pump beam. We present here the first observation of a cw oscillation generated by this process using a cell which contains sodium and helium, the pump beam being slightly detuned from the ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}$ resonance line. We also show how the self-oscillation due to four-wave mixing is modified by the presence of a buffer gas.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.59.40

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Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Nov 15, 1986•22 citations
Collisional damping can induce a coupling between two nonresonant light beams propagating in an atomic vapor. This coupling is sufficiently important to induce a gain process for a weak probe beam interacting with an intense pump beam. We present here the first observation of a cw oscillation generated by this process using a cell which contains sodium and helium, the pump beam being slightly detuned from the D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​ resonance line. We also show how the self-oscillation due to four-wave mixing is modified by the presence of a buffer gas.
We have used a two-wave mixing gain process in sodium vapor to construct a self-pumped phase conjugator. This was done by forming a resonator around a quartz sodium cell equipped with Brewster angle windows. A pump beam is then directed into the sodium cell at a small angle to the longitudinal axis of the resonator. At sufficiently high cw pump intensities, the ac-Stark effect pro- vides sufficient gain to achieve oscillation. Although this gain is unidirectional it occurs on the wings of the sodium resonance so that the backward traveling optical field in the resonator does not experience loss due to sodium absorption. The counterpropagating optical fields in the resonator interact with the pump in an internal four- wave mixing process to produce a fourth optical field (phase conjugate to the pump field). Our experiment was conducted at the sodium D2 resonance. The pump laser was a 699 autoscan single frequency ring dye laser providing pump intensities up to several hundred watts per square centimeter.
We present the results of an experimental and theoretical study of the gain (or absorption) experienced by a weak probe beam propagating through a sodium vapor in the presence of an intense pump field that is nearly resonant with the 3s → 3p atomic transition. The probe-transmission spectrum includes three distinct features that result from the modification of the atomic-level structure by the ac-Stark effect. Two of these features can lead to amplification of the probe wave. We measured the dependence of the probe spectrum on the detuning of the pump beam from resonance and on the pressure of a helium buffer gas. The experimentally obtained spectra are in good agreement with the predictions of a theoretical model based on the solution of the density-matrix equations of motion for a two-level atom and including the effects of Doppler broadening. The maximum gain measured in these experiments occurs at one of the Rabi sidebands and leads to a 38-fold increase in the intensity of the probe wave. Under some experimental conditions, we also observed two additional resonances, which are due to stimulated Raman scattering involving the sodium ground-state hyperfine levels.
The results of an experimental and theoretical study of the gain (or absorption) experienced by a weak probe beam propagating through a sodium vapor in the presence of an intense pump field that is nearly resonant with the 3s→3p atomic transition are presented. In general, the probe transmission spectrum is found to be comprised of three distinct features, two of which can lead to amplification of the probe wave. The origin of these features can be traced to the modification of the atomic level structure by the ac Stark effect. The experimentally measured spectra are in good agreement with the predictions of a theoretical model based on the solution of the density-matrix equations of motion for a two-level atom and including the effects of Doppler broadening. The dependence of the induced gain on the pressure of a helium buffer gas has been measured and is found to be in good agreement with the predictions of theory. The maximum gain observed in these experiments occurs at one of the Rabi sidebands and leads to a 38-fold increase in the intensity of the probe wave.