Off-resonant activation of optical emission

Yann G. Boucher, Yannick Dumeige, Patrice Féron

Exploiting the formal analogy between the transfer function of a micro-resonator and the optical susceptibility of an atomic medium, we investigate the spectral and energetic properties of active cavities seen as mesoscopic "photonic atoms". The resemblance is not limited to linear regime; a structural equivalent can be found for such fundamental processes as spontaneous emission, stimulated absorption and emission, saturation of the active medium or induced transparency.

Romain Coussement, G. Neyens, M. van den Bergh +1 more

Андрій Сіжук, Konstantin E. Dorfman, C. H. Raymond Ooi

The spatial inhomogeneity of absorption coefficient of the space between mirrors, filled by an optically active gas, is analyzed in quantum optical terms. It was theoretically shown, that the quantization of electromagnetic field in a cavity (optical resonator) can reveal the spatial inhomogeneity of absorption or re-emission ability of the optically active medium. It appears from the analytical calculations, the inhomogeneity is caused by the Doppler frequency shifts (including recoil effects) during the atom-photon collisions and the non-zero initial frequency width of the scanning signal. The proposed analytical representation of the absorption coefficient through the additive quantum optical terms gives deeper insight into intrinsic processes in the interacting with light matter.

Ilya Golub, G. Erez, R. Shuker

A F J Levi

Tiantian Shi, Duo Pan, Jingbiao Chen

Traditional lasers function using resonant cavities, in which the round-trip optical path is exactly equal to an integer multiple of the intracavity wavelengths to constructively enhance the spontaneous emission rate. By taking advantage of the enhancement from the resonant cavity, the narrowest sub-10-mHz-linewidth laser and a $10^{-16}$-fractional-frequency-stability superradiant active optical clock (AOC) have been achieved. However, a laser with atomic spontaneous radiation being destructively inhibited in an anti-resonant cavity, where the atomic resonance is exactly between two adjacent cavity resonances, has not been reported. Herein, we experimentally demonstrate inhibited stimulated emission and termed it an inhibited laser. Compared with traditional superradiant AOCs, which exhibit superiority in terms of the high suppression of cavity noise, the suppression of the cavity-pulling effect of an inhibited laser can be further improved by a factor of $(2F/pi)^2$, i.e., 2.07 in this work, which was improved from 26 to 53 times. This study will guide further development of AOCs with better stability, and thus, it is significant for quantum metrology and may lead to new research in the laser physics and cavity quantum electrodynamics fields.