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OSA Light, Energy and the Environment Congress

Three-photon Pumped Backwards Lasing in Argon

Arthur Dogariu, Jiabao Li, Richard B. Miles

Published Jan 1, 2015• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate backwards lasing in atomic argon directly excited via a three–photon pumping, accompanied by a 6-wave mixing process. Argon lasing in atmospheric air can greatly enhance standoff trace species detection.
DOI
10.1364/ee.2015.etu2a.4

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There is nothing so practical as a good theory. As a case in point, the compelling need for standoff detection of hazardous gases and vapor indicators of explosives has motivated the development of remotely pumped, scheme(s) which produce radiation in the backward direction [1,2]. Moving from conceptualization to theoretical analysis and experimental verification, we demonstrate that high gain can be achieved in air. Backward air lasing provides possibilities for remote detection [3] as will be discussed.
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Abstract The research topic of air lasing is of fundamental and practical importance, which has grown rapidly in the past decade. Air lasing, or a laser‐like emission from air species including atomic oxygen, atomic argon, atomic nitrogen, molecular nitrogen, and molecular nitrogen ions, has been investigated vastly in both experiment and theory. In this review, the basic concepts of air lasing are discussed and the crucial role of quantum coherence in the air‐lasing process is highlighted. As an exciting perspective, air lasing not only exhibits important fundamental physics such as superradiance, nonlinear effects, vibrational and rotational dynamics, but also shows potential practical implications toward remote sensing.
Cavity-free lasing in atmospheric air has stimulated intense research toward a fundamental understanding of underlying physical mechanisms. In this Letter, we identify a new mechanism-a third-harmonic photon mediated resonant energy transfer pathway leading to population inversion in argon via an initial three-photon excitation of nitrogen molecules irradiated by intense 261 nm pulses-that enables bidirectional two-color cascaded lasing in atmospheric air. By making pump-probe measurements, we conclusively show that such cascaded lasing results from superfluorescence rather than amplified spontaneous emission. Such cascaded lasing with the capability of producing bidirectional multicolor coherent pulses opens additional possibilities for remote sensing applications.