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Physics World

Lasing turned upside-down

Malcolm N Dunn, Richard R. Moseley

Published Jan 1, 1995• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Absorption and emission are two of the most fundamental processes in optics. Fluorescent lights, lasers and all forms of spectroscopy are based on a thorough understanding of these two processes. In recent years, however, a new generation of experiments has been pioneered in which samples that are expected to absorb radiation do not, and samples that are not expected to lase might soon do so. These new phenomena are based on the exploitation of quantum interference within atoms, and challenge much of the conventional wisdom of quantum electronics.

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/8/1/28

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We show theoretically that it is possible to generate laser light based on two-photon and other high-order multiphoton processes when an atomic beam of optically driven potassium atoms crosses a high-finesse optical cavity. We use a rigorous model that takes into account all the atomic substates involved in the optical interactions and is valid for any drive and lasing field intensities. The polarizations of the drive and lasing fields are assumed to be fixed. Stable and unstable laser emission branches are obtained, which are represented as a function of cavity detuning and are analyzed in terms of the fundamental quantum processes yielding them. Closed-curve laser-emission profiles are obtained for multiphoton lasing based on processes involving more than one lasing photon. Two-photon laser emission branches show relatively long segments of stationary emission, combined in general with some segments of nonstationary emission, or with segments of mixture with three-photon emission processes. Rayleigh and hyper-Rayleigh processes can become simultaneously resonant, entailing in such case a large and fast transfer of population from the atomic initial ground sublevel to other ground sublevels with different zzz components of the total angular momentum. They could be useful in generating multiphoton correlated field states. In all cases the largest laser emission intensities are obtained from the highest-order processes, rather than the lowest. These results open the way to the understanding of experiments performed in the past years and suggest possibilities for more efficient and varied types of multiphoton laser operation.