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Acta Physica Sinica

Experimental study on laser pattern formation by strong nonlinear effects in rubidium atomic hot vapor

Guoxing Lu, Wei Dong, Haixia Chen, Xiong De-Zhi, Pengjun Wang, Jing Zhang, 山西大学光电研究所,量子光学与光量子器件国家重点实验室,太原 030006

Published Jan 1, 2008• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

There are abundant nonlinear effects in atomic vapor. In this paper, the phenomenon of laser breaking up into filaments is studied in the near-resonant rubidium atomic vapor,which is induced by the strong nonlinear Kerr effect. When the continuous-wave laser beam with transverse Gaussian distribution passes through the atomic vapor, the pattern arising from the coherent superposition of the diffraction patterns of filaments is observed. We also investigated the influence on the mode pattern by input power of laser, the temperature of the vapor cell and the frequency detuning of pump light. Due to the hyperfine structure of rubidium atoms, the four-wave mixing effect exists in hot rubidium atomic vapor, which is related to the third-order nonlinear effect closely. The Raman gain of the Stokes and anti-Stokes photons is observed by scanning the frequency of the probe beam.

DOI
10.7498/aps.57.4224

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There are abundant nonlinear effects in atomic vapor. In this paper, the phenomenon of laser breaking up into filaments is studied in the near-resonant rubidium atomic vapor,which is induced by the strong nonlinear Kerr effect. When the continuous-wave laser beam with transverse Gaussian distribution passes through the atomic vapor, the pattern arising from the coherent superposition of the diffraction patterns of filaments is observed. We also investigated the influence on the mode pattern by input power of laser, the temperature of the vapor cell and the frequency detuning of pump light. Due to the hyperfine structure of rubidium atoms, the four-wave mixing effect exists in hot rubidium atomic vapor, which is related to the third-order nonlinear effect closely. The Raman gain of the Stokes and anti-Stokes photons is observed by scanning the frequency of the probe beam.
This study presents examples of observed optical pattern formation in which a single laser beam propagating through atomic sodium vapor without feedback develops a stable, regular transverse structure. In particular, a three-filament near-field pattern leading to a honeycomb far-field pattern occurs at intensities near the saturation intensity and at powers larger than (but of the order of magnitude of) the critical power for self-focusing. The three-filament pattern has a uniform phase profile and strongly correlated power fluctuations, which suggest that it is perhaps a quantum image. These observations are also found to be in good agreement with numerical simulations of filamentation in a two-level atomic medium.
We have observed transverse pattern formation leading to highly regular structures in both the near and far fields when a near-resonant laser beam propagates without feedback through an atomic sodium vapor. One example is a regular far-field honeycomb pattern, which results from the transformation of the laser beam within the vapor into a stable three-lobed structure with a uniform phase distribution and highly correlated power fluctuations. The predictions of a theoretical model of the filamentation process are in good agreement with these observations.
We have measured -3.5 dB (-8.1 dB corrected for losses) relative intensity squeezing between probe and conjugate beams generated by stimulated, nondegenerate four-wave mixing in hot rubidium vapor. Unlike early observations of squeezing in atomic vapors based on saturation of a two-level system, our scheme uses a resonant nonlinearity based on ground-state coherences in a three-level system. Since this scheme produces narrowband, squeezed light near an atomic resonance, it is of interest for experiments involving cold atoms or atomic ensembles.
We describe several novel experimental effects resulting from optical coherences in multilevel atoms driven with coherent laser fields. Four configurations were explored using Rb vapor cells: lambda dark-line resonances, single beam double-lambda oscillations, and cascade two-photon transitions in co- and counter-propagating geometries. Experiments were performed with high spectral-resolution using low-power diode lasers sources and optically thick cells. Two of the most striking effects we observed are: (1) a self-oscillation that occurs at 3.0 GHz on the 85Rb hyperfine frequency when a single laser field pumps the atoms, and (2) a coherent blue-beam emission that we observe in the co-propagating cascade two-photon case. These phenomena lead to complex lineshapes, and the effects sometimes dominate the well-known 3-level coherence effects. Additional higher-order mixing or cascaded interferences are apparent in all four experimental configurations. Many of these can be viewed as multi-wave mixing enhanced by optical coherences around closed-loop paths of atomic energy levels. The effects are particularly strong when four-photon closed-loop paths with resonant energy levels are possible, as in, the double-lambda system or as a four-wave mixing “box.”
In this paper, we investigated the coherent degenerate and nondegenerate four-wave interaction in the propagation of a femtosecond laser pulse in atomic rubidium vapor. In the case of degenerate four-wave interaction, the mechanism for optical switching in an optically dense resonant medium is considered. The third-order nonlinear interaction of the laser beams intersecting in the cell at a small angle leads to a nonlinear response in the form of a fourth beam, which occurs as a result of the interaction between the two pump beams and the third signal laser beam.