Applications of Time-dependent Quantum Mechanics to Resonantly-enhanced Linear and Nonlinear Optical Processes

Stephen E. Harris, J.E. Field, Ataç İmamoğlu

It is well known by those practicing the techniques of nonlinear optics, that the power which may be generated in a frequency summing process, or the gain which may be obtained in a parametric process are determined by the interplay of the nonlinear and linear susceptibilities. In general, as an atomic transition to the ground state is approached, the nonlinear susceptibility is resonantly enhanced, but at the same time the media exhibits a rapidly increasing refractive index and becomes opaque.

Stephen E. Harris, J. E. Field, Ataç İmamoğlu

It is well known by those practicing the techniques of nonlinear optics that the power that may be generated in a frequency summing process and the gain that may be obtained in a parametric process are determined by the interaction of tire nonlinear and linear susceptibilities. In general as an atomic transition to the ground state is approached, the nonlinear susceptibility is resonantly enhanced, but at the same time the media exhibits a rapidly increasing refractive index and becomes opaque.

Daniel F. Walls, Gerard J Milburn

Kazuhiko Misawa

Dmitry Budker, Wojciech Gawlik, Derek F. Jackson Kimball +3 more

The authors review the history, current status, physical mechanisms, experimental methods, and applications of nonlinear magneto-optical effects in atomic vapors. They begin by describing the pioneering work of Macaluso and Corbino over a century ago on linear magneto-optical effects (in which the properties of the medium do not depend on the light power) in the vicinity of atomic resonances. These effects are then contrasted with various nonlinear magneto-optical phenomena that have been studied both theoretically and experimentally since the late 1960s. In recent years, the field of nonlinear magneto-optics has experienced a revival of interest that has led to a number of developments, including the observation of ultranarrow (1-Hz) magneto-optical resonances, applications in sensitive magnetometry, nonlinear magneto-optical tomography, and the possibility of a search for parity- and time-reversal-invariance violation in atoms.