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Optics Letters

Observation of amplified reflection by degenerate four-wave mixing in atomic sodium vapor

D. M. Bloom, P. F. Liao, Nicholas P. Economou

Published Mar 1, 1978• 199 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This Letter is the first report of the observation of amplified reflection and self-oscillation produced by degenerate optical four-wave mixing by using a resonantly enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in atomic sodium vapor. Phase-conjugated reflected waves with intensities 100 times greater than input-signal intensities were achieved with only 40-kW/cm2 pump intensity.

DOI
10.1364/ol.2.000058

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Four Wave Mixing Characteristics Of Sodium Vapor Under High Reflectivity Conditions

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Four wave mixing (FWM) performance of sodium vapor was investigated in the strong pump regime (I»I at) necessary to achieve good phase conjugate reflectivity, R. Reflectivities >230% were observed using narrowband CW pump powers less than 1 W. Degenerate FWM spectral response was measured with R as a parameter, and shown to depend on self-focusing effects at higher R. The field of view of the sodium FWM was determined under narrowband high R conditions and found to behave as expected, except for nearly collinear geometries. Faith-ful imaging through a severe optical aberration was demonstrated at moderate R, but experimental observations and analysis indicate potential fidelity problems at large R. Reflect-ivity and field of view were also measured for wideband (2 GHz) laser pumping.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Apr 22, 1988•0 citations
This Letter is the first report of the observation of amplified reflection and self-oscillation produced by degenerate optical four-wave mixing by using a resonantly enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in atomic sodium vapor. Phase-conjugated reflected waves with intensities 100 times greater than input-signal intensities were achieved with only 40-kW/cm2 pump intensity.
We have observed a new component in the signals produced by degenerate four-wave mixing of 5-nsec optical pulses by the DDD-line resonances of sodium vapor. This component is comparable in intensity to that previously observed from a grating pattern of excited sodium atoms, but arises rather from a grating of coherently aligned (but not optically pumped) ground-state atoms. This component exists when there are no spatial intensity beats between input waves.
We observe optical phase conjugation using the surface nonlinearity of a dense atomic potassium vapor. For an atomic number density of 1.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1017{10}^{17}1017 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$, phase-conjugate reflectivities of 4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}5}$ are measured for pump intensities approaching the saturation intensity of 10 W ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$. We also demonstrate aberration correction using surface phase conjugation. The measured properties of the surface-phase-conjugate signal are in excellent agreement with the predictions of a theory of surface phase conjugation by degenerate four-wave mixing, in which the origin of the nonlinear response is saturated absorption.
Degenerate four-wave mixing in sodium vapor is investigated using a flashlamp-pumped dye laser synchronized on a cw dye laser. At low atomic density, the reflectivity versus the pump intensity and the line shapes are in good agreement with theoretical predictions in the case of both plane waves and Gaussian beams. At high atomic density, reflectivities much higher than unity have been observed. The influence of the pump imbalance has been studied as well as the deformation of the wave front of the conjugated beam introduced by the pump beams. In the high-atomic-density case, the theoretical problem is more complex, and our experimental results exhibit only qualitative agreement with theory.
Four wave mixing (FWM) performance of sodium vapor was investigated in the strong pump regime (I»I at) necessary to achieve good phase conjugate reflectivity, R. Reflectivities >230% were observed using narrowband CW pump powers less than 1 W. Degenerate FWM spectral response was measured with R as a parameter, and shown to depend on self-focusing effects at higher R. The field of view of the sodium FWM was determined under narrowband high R conditions and found to behave as expected, except for nearly collinear geometries. Faith-ful imaging through a severe optical aberration was demonstrated at moderate R, but experimental observations and analysis indicate potential fidelity problems at large R. Reflect-ivity and field of view were also measured for wideband (2 GHz) laser pumping.