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Applied Physics Letters

Evidence for optical bistability in millimeter gas cells

Robert G. Harrison, I. A. Al-Saidi, E. J. D. Cummins, W. J. Firth

Published Mar 15, 1985• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical bistability, limiting, and other pulse shaping effects are observed in compact Fabry–Perot resonators containing SF6. The gas, in cells as short as 1 mm, is excited with smooth 100-ns transversely excited atmospheric CO2 laser pulses. The optical nonlinearity responsible for these effects is well described by a four-state kinetic model with unsaturable excited state absorption.

DOI
10.1063/1.95582

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Optical bistability, limiting, and other pulse shaping effects are observed in compact Fabry–Perot resonators containing SF6. The gas, in cells as short as 1 mm, is excited with smooth 100-ns transversely excited atmospheric CO2 laser pulses. The optical nonlinearity responsible for these effects is well described by a four-state kinetic model with unsaturable excited state absorption.
There has been considerable interest over the last few years in transitions to chaos in passive optically bistable systems. Ikeda1 showed in 1979 that an optically bistable ring resonator containing the simplest of nonlinear systems, a two-level media, can show a period doubling route to chaos. This was demonstrated by us2 using NH3 gas near resonantly pumped by pulsed CO2 laser radiation. More generally we identified and demonstrated the unique advantages of molecular gases in this field, providing in particular a vast range of laser-molecular coincidences together with control of response time, and therefore switching time and modulation frequency, by varying gas pressure. Subsequent extension of this work to all optical Fabry-Perot resonators revealed huge oscillatory effects3 leading to chaos in the transmitted laser signal. Under other parameter conditions for both NH3 and SF6 a rich variety of optically bistable effects were observed obtained in systems as small as 1 mm for SF64,5.
Dispersive optical bistability and instabilities leading to period doubling, higher harmonics, and chaos in an all-optical passive quantum system are discussed theoretically and experimentally. These phenomena have been observed for a wide range of operating conditions in ring and Fabry-Perot resonators containing ammonia molecular gas as the nonlinear medium. Laser input intensity, gas pressure, and cavity tuning are the main control parameters in observation of these effects. The experimental results are well modeled by our generalization of standard two-level system theory to include standing-wave, reservoir, and transverse effects.
Optical bistability in a CO2 infrared laser containing SF6 as a saturable intracavity absorber has been studied under dynamic conditions as a function of a time-dependent laser control parameter. The width of the optical bistability region, the fluctuations in the bistability switching values, and the dependence on the initial conditions have been investigated in this transient optical bistability. A numerical solution of the laser rate equations provides a good interpretation of the experimental results, but some experimental observations cannot be completely explained.
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.