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Quantum Electronics

Pulsed laser based on a resonance—metastable level transition in mercury ion

Svetlana V. Markova, Gueorgii G. Petrash

Published Sep 30, 1995• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The method of doubled pulses was used to achieve pulsed lasing due to the 5 d 10 6 p 2 P 3/2 —5 d 9 6 s 2 2 D 5/2 transition in the mercury ion (λ = 398 nm), similar to efficient lasing transitions in copper and gold atoms. Discharge tubes with inner diameters 4 and 8 mm and 30 cm long were used. They were filled with neon or helium as the buffer gases. There was a significant difference between lasing in the narrow and wide tubes. In the wide tube it was possible to observe lasing only when the delay between the pulses was short; the beam was not ring-shaped, contrary to what was found earlier for the narrow tube. Lasing was observed even when the delay between the two pulses was less than 5 μs, but lasing disappeared when heating of the tube became stronger as the pulse repetition frequency was increased. Possible population and inversion mechanisms were analysed.

DOI
10.1070/qe1995v025n09abeh000483

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The method of doubled pulses was used to achieve pulsed lasing due to the 5 d 10 6 p 2 P 3/2 —5 d 9 6 s 2 2 D 5/2 transition in the mercury ion (λ = 398 nm), similar to efficient lasing transitions in copper and gold atoms. Discharge tubes with inner diameters 4 and 8 mm and 30 cm long were used. They were filled with neon or helium as the buffer gases. There was a significant difference between lasing in the narrow and wide tubes. In the wide tube it was possible to observe lasing only when the delay between the pulses was short; the beam was not ring-shaped, contrary to what was found earlier for the narrow tube. Lasing was observed even when the delay between the two pulses was less than 5 μs, but lasing disappeared when heating of the tube became stronger as the pulse repetition frequency was increased. Possible population and inversion mechanisms were analysed.
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A description is given of the method and the results are reported of an experiment in which quasi-cw lasing was obtained as a result of transitions from a resonance to a metastable level of the calcium atom without the use of any special impurities to quench the lower metastable state. Under these experimental conditions the metastable level was depopulated not as a result of collisions of the second kind or as a result of a chemical reaction, but because of the ionization, electron-impact excitation, and diffusion of metastable atoms to the discharge tube wall.
Atomic coherence gives rise to a series of interesting phenomena in quantum optics.1 In this work we investigate coherence effects within the Na Dl line, demonstrating coherent trapping and lasing without inversion, and study the dependence of these phenomena on buffer gas pressure. Two pump laser beams (I, and I2) are tuned to the frequencies υ1 and υ2 that correspond to the 3S1/2 (F=1, 2) → 3P1/2 transition and are right circularly polarized. Pockels cells are used to turn on or/and off the beams within approximately one nanosecond. To demonstrate lasing without inversion, a weak pulse of left polarized light tuned to t)2 was used to create a small population in the upper level (3P1/2) and the amplification of I, was observed. We found a significant gain in the absence of population inversion, which was verified by a direct experimental observation. These results were observed as a function of buffer gas pressure. The atomic coherence effects are shown to disappear in the presence of a helium buffer gas at a pressure of ≈ 1 Torr; whereas, complete optical pumping is only achieved at helium buffer gas pressures >10 Torr.
Two-photon laser spectroscopy of the $6\text{ }{^{1}S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}7\text{ }{^{1}S}_{0}$ transition in mercury has been performed using two copropagating continuous-wave laser beams. One laser beam is at 254 nm wavelength and can be tuned to the $6\text{ }{^{1}S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}6\text{ }{^{3}P}_{1}$ resonance. The other laser beam is at 408 nm. Two very different regimes can be distinguished, one far off resonance and one near resonance with the one-photon resonance. A resonance which is not Doppler broadened has been observed for low Rabi frequencies. This velocity-selective double resonance in a three-level ladder system is analogous to the dark resonance in three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ systems.
We investigate the feasibility of UV lasing without inversion at a wavelength of 253.7 nm utilizing interacting dark resonances in mercury vapor. Our theoretical analysis starts with radiation-damped optical Bloch equations for all relevant 13 atomic levels. These master equations are generalized by considering technical phase noise of the driving lasers. From the Doppler broadened complex susceptibility we obtain the stationary output power from semiclassical laser theory. The finite overlap of the driving Gaussian laser beams defines an ellipsoidal inhomogeneous gain distribution. Therefore, we evaluate the intra-cavity field inside a ring laser self-consistently with Fourier optics. This analysis confirms the feasibility of UV lasing and reveals its dependence on experimental parameters.