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physica status solidi (b)

Transient Light‐Induced Spatial Gratings by Successive Optical Coherent Pulses

E. I. Shtyrkov, N. L. Nevelskaya, Vladimir S. Lobkov, N. G. Yarmukhametov

Published Apr 1, 1980• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract A new optical quantum phenomenon by interference of atomic states is discussed. The possibility of formation of induced transient gratings in a resonant medium is shown in the case when the medium is excited by two laser pulses arriving at experimental sample noncoincident in time but from different direction. The theory of such gratings is presented for detuning of the incident light from resonance. A technique is developed for observing such gratings for the 4A2–2E(Ē) transition of ruby.

DOI
10.1002/pssb.2220980209

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Abstract A new optical quantum phenomenon by interference of atomic states is discussed. The possibility of formation of induced transient gratings in a resonant medium is shown in the case when the medium is excited by two laser pulses arriving at experimental sample noncoincident in time but from different direction. The theory of such gratings is presented for detuning of the incident light from resonance. A technique is developed for observing such gratings for the 4A2–2E(Ē) transition of ruby.
A theoretical analysis of the optical coherent transients that arise when a sample of two-level atoms is irradiated by a sequence of three broad-bandwidth pulses is presented. The first two pulses have a relative delay time of order of the correlation time of the pulse fluctuations and are sent into an atomic vapor from different directions. These pulses, whose temporal width is much greater than the delay time, can be correlated with one another and can be strong enough to saturate the two-level atomic transition. The third pulse is weak, noncorrelated with the first two, and is delayed in time so that it does not overlap them. We present a detailed examination of the transient signal that is produced when the third pulse is scattered by the spatial gratings in the population difference of atoms created by the first two pulses. Taking into account the effects of inhomogeneous and homogeneous broadening, we calculate the intensity of the transient signal, emitted in different directions, as a function of delay time. The signal is found to depend dramatically on the intensities of the excitation pulses. It is shown that, for strong excitation pulses, there is a direct dependence of the signal on the cross-correlation time of pulses ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}_{\mathit{c}}^{12}$ that does not exist when the pulses are weak. In particular, the strongest signals exhibit a peak of width of order ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}_{\mathit{c}}^{12}$. This peak can have a very narrow dip near its maximum whose width is much smaller than ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}_{\mathit{c}}^{12}$, if the pulses are fully correlated. We develop a representation of the time evolution of the Bloch vector of a two-level atom, driven by time-delayed pulses, that enables us to explain our results. In this representation, the two time-delayed pulses are replaced by two fully overlapping pulses having some effective amplitudes and atomic field detunings.
Abstract Recently, the possibility of the creation, erasing and ultrafast control of polarization and population inversion gratings by sequences of few-cycle bipolar pulses interacting with a medium in a resonant and coherent way was predicted. In this case, the overlapping of pulses in the medium is not needed for the creation of gratings. In this paper, we study the possibility of the ultrafast creation and control of spatial periodic gratings in a resonant medium when subcycle unipolar pulses (that is ones containing the constant spectral component of an electric field) propagate in the coherent regime.
Formation of coherent transients by incoherent light pulses has stimulated renewed interest in time-resolved coherent spectroscopy. Standard theories conveniently account for the weak-field regime experiments, but they fail to interpret the power effects that occur during resonant excitation of a sample by time-delayed, correlated, broadband laser pulses. We report on a new approach to this problem. We have been able to determine the expectation value of the population grating induced by two time-delayed, correlated, broadband light pulses under the limitation that one of the fields is weak. We have developed a diagrammatic technique that seems promising for the calculation of actual coherent-transient signals in the strong-field regime.
We present the theoretical model of coherent interactions of the light beams in a two-level resonant medium, taking into account a spatial-periodic modulation of the parameters of nonlinear medium in an interference field as well as nonlinear behavior of refractive index and absorption coefficient due to optical bleaching. As evidenced by the results of investigations described in this work, the process of the light beams interaction via scattering from dynamically induced optical gratings in two-level resonant medium is characterized by a number of interesting features like mutual attraction and repulsion, irradiation of additional beams probably due to soliton-soliton diffraction mode, formation of dark spatial solitons in the mode of defocusing interaction that can be used for all-optical control over the spatial structure of laser beams. Formation of bound states of spatial cavity solitons upon intracavity four-wave mixing and possibilities for control over all-optical soliton-based operations are also discussed.
Electromagnetically induced gratings (EMIGs) of atomic populations are formed in the resonant media at the interference of two or more overlapping monochromatic beams. They are of great interest in the view of the possibility of numerous applications in optics and spectroscopy. The significant progress has been achieved recently in the generation of ultrashort femto- and attosecond pulses. Such ultrashort pulses cannot provide an interference pattern because the region of their overlapping is very small and insufficient to form even few interference fringes. However, when the pulse duration is shorter than the relaxation times in the medium in the presence of a coherent interaction with the medium, they can rapidly change of the population of atomic levels owing to carrier-wave Rabi flopping. In this case, population gratings can be formed without the instantaneous overlapping of ultrashort light pulses in the medium. The latest results on the production and control of EMIGs received by means of a sequence of single- and subcycle light pulses have been reviewed. It has been shown that the unipolar subcycle pulses can be used to control more efficiently the EMIGs compared to multipolar multicycle pulses. Various applications of these gratings have been discussed in the ultrafast optics and for the holographic recording.
In the regime of coherent interaction of short optical pulses with a resonant medium, which is implemented with a pulse duration shorter than the relaxation times in the medium, the formation of population gratings can occur without overlapping the pulses therein. In this case, there are new possibilities for controlling optical pulses, which are especially pronounced for extremely short pulses. It is shown that, with the proper choice of the parameters of a sequence of extremely short optical pulses, not only the formation of population gratings, but also their erasure are possible. It is demonstrated that this effect can be used for the creation of an ultrahigh-speed optical deflector.