The Review of Laser Engineering
Numerical Analysis and Dependence of Negative Nonlinear Absorption Effect on Modulation Degree of Incident Laser.
Yoshinobu Maeda, Takao Sakakibara, Masatoshi Migitaka
Abstract
The dependence of the negative nonlinear absorption effect on modulation degree of an incident laser was investigated in an erbium doped yttrium aluminum garnet crystal which has a five-level system: absorption can occur between a ground level and an excited level (4I15/2-4I9/2) and between two other excited levels (4I13/2-2H11/2) in Er3+. According as modulation degrees of the incident laser decreased, the transmitted laser waveform was inverted against the incident one for incident modulation degree under 90% and sample lengths greater than 2mm. By calculating rate equations based on an analytical model for the five-level system, it was confirmed that the enhanced absorption was caused by stimulated emission from 4S3/2 level to 4I13/2 level and close agreement between observed and calculated values was obtained in the relation between transmitted modulation degree and incident one.