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Physical Review A

Resonant optical patterns in sodium vapor in a magnetic field

Ziad H. Musslimani, L. M. Pismen

Published Feb 1, 1999• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study two-dimensional optical pattern formation in sodium vapor with a single-feedback mirror in a magnetic field. Complex transverse patterns sustained by resonant interactions arise under conditions when wave and static composite modes are excited simultaneously.
DOI
10.1103/physreva.59.1571

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We present here instabilities observed in the transverse profile of a continuous-wave light beam that crosses a sample of sodium vapor twice by means of a feedback mirror. The wave front and the intensity of the beam are spatially modulated by the intensity-dependent dispersive and absorptive action of the vapor. Experimental evidence indicates that the vapor acts as a phase-conjugate mirror, thus providing an active cavity when it is coupled with the feedback mirror. The instabilities develop as a consequence of sideband generation at the resonant modes of this cavity. The transverse-mode profiles of these sidebands are analyzed experimentally.
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It is demonstrated experimentally and theoretically that a light-shift-induced level crossing in an oblique magnetic field results in a nonmonotonous dependency of the transmission of a sodium vapor cell on the input power. If feedback by a single plane mirror is added, bistability of the transmission and of the beam profile (resonatorless transverse optical bistability) is observed. The origin of the bistable behavior and the parameter dependencies is explained by the properties of the homogeneous solution. Numerical simulations with a Gaussian incident beam reproduce well the switching behavior of the beam profile found in the experiment.
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We report the observation of transverse optical bistability (TOB) in a sodium-filled Fabry-P\'erot resonator, pumped by circularly polarized light, nearly resonant with the D1{\mathit{D}}_{1}D1​ line, in the presence of a buffer gas, for low vapor density. A sequence of circularly symmetric patterns, ascribable to superpositions of resonator modes, is obtained. The appearance of TOB can be explained in terms of a self-induced intensity-dependent lens formed in the medium by the interaction with the laser light. A simple model that considers the transverse diffusion of the atoms inside the cell provides predictions in good qualitative agreement with the observations.