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Optics Letters

Self-oscillations in a cavity bounded by a sodium-vapor phase-conjugate mirror pumped by two cross-polarized beams

E. Le Bihan, M. Pinard, G. Grynberg

Published Mar 1, 1986• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have observed self-oscillation in a linear cavity bounded by a sodium-vapor phase-conjugate mirror pumped by two cross-polarized beams. The oscillating beam polarization is analyzed along the directions of the pump polarizations, and different intensities are observed. The introduction of a quarter-wave plate inside the cavity permits the oscillation threshold to be lowered.

DOI
10.1364/ol.11.000159

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Physical Review Letters•Jul 6, 1987•54 citations
We have observed self-oscillation in a linear cavity bounded by a sodium-vapor phase-conjugate mirror pumped by two cross-polarized beams. The oscillating beam polarization is analyzed along the directions of the pump polarizations, and different intensities are observed. The introduction of a quarter-wave plate inside the cavity permits the oscillation threshold to be lowered.
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A theoretical study of the stationary regime of a four-wave mixing oscillator inside a cavity is presented. The theory is developed in a situation where the phase-conjugate reflection R/sub c/ is much smaller than 1. To find the intensity emitted by this oscillator, two types of saturation mechanism, pump-beam depletion and atomic saturation, are considered. The principal characteristics of the degenerate oscillation are the following: very-low-threshold, bistable behavior, and phase locking of the oscillating beam on the pump beams. In the nondegenerate case, it is shown that the position of the phase-conjugate medium inside the cavity is an essential parameter to determine the threshold condition.>
Self-oscillation of cavities closed by phase-conjugate mirrors has been observed with solids,1 liquids,2 and vapors.3 The case of vapors is particularly interesting because the nonlinearities are well known, and precise comparison between theory and experiments is possible. Furthermore, because of the huge nonlinearity close to a resonance transition, high reflectivities are obtained even with cw lasers.4 At last, the time response of the medium is expected to be of the order of the lifetime of the excited level.