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Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Manipulation of a ring-shaped beam via spatial self- and cross-phase modulation at lower intensity

Lin Cheng, Zhaoyang Zhang, Lei Zhang, Danmeng Ma, Gaoguo Yang, Tian Jiang dong, Yanpeng Zhang

Published Jan 1, 2019• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report a tunable ring-shaped diffraction pattern via either nonlinear spatial self- or cross-phase modulation caused by the EIT-like effect in rubidium atomic vapor. During the propagation of an input Gaussian-profile beam, its output wavefront exhibits a ring-shaped diffraction pattern. Furthermore, the spot center can be tuned from dark to bright by varying individual experimental parameters, such as power, frequency detuning, the polarization state of the incident beams and atomic temperature, which makes the nonlinear phase shift evolve beyond 2π. In particular, the input intensity can be as low as 500 W m-2.

DOI
10.1039/c8cp06799f

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We report a tunable ring-shaped diffraction pattern via either nonlinear spatial self- or cross-phase modulation caused by the EIT-like effect in rubidium atomic vapor. During the propagation of an input Gaussian-profile beam, its output wavefront exhibits a ring-shaped diffraction pattern. Furthermore, the spot center can be tuned from dark to bright by varying individual experimental parameters, such as power, frequency detuning, the polarization state of the incident beams and atomic temperature, which makes the nonlinear phase shift evolve beyond 2π. In particular, the input intensity can be as low as 500 W m-2.
In this manuscript, we demonstrate the ability of nonlinear light-atom interactions to produce tunably non-Gaussian, partially self-healing optical modes. Gaussian spatial-mode light tuned near to the atomic resonances in hot rubidium vapor is shown to result in non-Gaussian output mode structures that may be controlled by varying either the input beam power or the temperature of the atomic vapor. We show that the output modes exhibit a degree of self-reconstruction after encountering an obstruction in the beam path. The resultant modes are similar to truncated Bessel-Gauss modes that exhibit the ability to self-reconstruct earlier upon propagation than Gaussian modes. The ability to generate tunable, self-reconstructing beams has potential applications to a variety of imaging and communication scenarios.
Nonlinear atomic media are promising substitutes for spatial light modulators (SLMs) owing to the high tunability and fast response. We demonstrate the generation of high-order Bessel-like beam based on cross-phase modulation in 85 Rb atoms. The atomic medium, whose refractive index is spatially modulated by the focused Gaussian pump beam, acts as a nonlinear focusing lens for the Laguerre-Gaussian probe beam. As a result, the probe beam carries the nonlinear phase shift and is converted into a Bessel-like mode in far-field diffraction. The superior self-healing ability of the generated high-order Bessel-like beam is verified by inserting an obstruction in the beam path, and its high tunability is investigated in terms of the pump beam power and vapor temperature. Furthermore, this novel beam is used in an obstruction-immune rotation sensor to measure the angular velocity. Nonlinear atomic medium as a novel SLM promises considerable application prospects in modulating the light field structure.
Optical vortex orbital angular momentum modes, namely the twists number of the light does in one wavelength, play a critical role in quantum-information coding, super-resolution imaging, and high-precision optical measurement. Here, we present the identification of the orbital angular momentum modes based on spatial self-phase modulation in rubidium atomic vapor. The refractive index of atomic medium is spatially modulated by the focused vortex laser beam, and the resulted nonlinear phase shift of beam directly related to the orbital angular momentum modes. The output diffraction pattern carries clearly distinguishable tails, whose number and rotation direction correspond to the magnitude and sign of the input beam orbital angular momentum, respectively. Furthermore, the visualization degree of orbital angular momentums identification is adjusted on-demand in the terms of incident power and frequency detuning. These results show that the spatial self-phase modulation of atomic vapor can provide a feasible and effective way to rapidly readout the orbital angular momentum modes of vortex beam.
We propose a new method to generate Bessel-like beam using cross-phase modulation. The hot rubidium atomic sample is shown to have the ability to vary a Gaussian beam (probe beam) into a Bessel-like beam when the sample is illuminated with a counter-propagating Gaussian beam (pump beam) tuned close to the atomic resonances. It is demonstrated that the Bessel-like beam exhibits self-healing after encountering an obstruction on the beam path. The parameters of the Bessel-like beam are found to be easily adjusted by the pump beam power and sample temperature. Moreover, this method is even applicable to the probe beam of low power, having more practical value than the method using self-phase modulation which needs high input beam power. The merits of variable parameter, no requirement for input beam power, simple setup, and low cost would make this method of significance in a variety of applications, especially in those areas where Bessel beam power is needed to be low and parameter to be adjusted easily without changing the setup.
We present a quantitative model for coherent on-resonance small-scale self-focusing of laser pulses in atomic media. A vapor-induced diaphragm effect at the edge of the pulse generates a pattern of diffraction rings that modulates the initial transverse profile of the pulse. Practically, because of the spatial asymmetry of the original pulse, this diffraction pattern is perturbed and dots appear superimposed upon the rings. A large-scale self-focusing phenomenon is then initiated from each individual dot and the global transverse energy profile of the pulse evolves in a hot-spot pattern. This final pattern is characteristic of what is usually called small-scale self-focusing. Our theoretical predictions are compared with both the results of an experiment on a 169Tm^{169}\mathrm{Tm}169Tm vapor and the predictions of existing models.
Spatial discrete control of the light field has long been regarded as a fascinating and prominent area in optics. Here, we propose two distinct approaches to spatially manipulate the four-wave mixing (FWM) signal by introducing a one-dimensional standing wave into its nonlinear generation and linear propagation dynamics. The FWM is generated by two pump fields and one reference field in an atomic vapor. First, we encode the standing-wave pattern into one pump field and successfully transfer its periodic distribution to the FWM signal. The spatially distributed pump field can modulate the third-order nonlinearity in a discrete manner and induce an equivalent nonlinear amplitude grating, which discretely diffracts the generated FWM signal within a rather wide frequency tuning range. In addition, we also established a linear refractive index grating with the assistance of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) by employing the same standing wave to modulate the Gaussian FWM signal in a cascaded atomic configuration. Owing to the instantaneously adjustable EIT condition, we have both theoretically and experimentally demonstrated the sensitive inversion on the bright and dark fringes of the discretized FWM signal by inverting the sign of the two-photon detuning. This work opens opportunities for engineering nonlinear optical effects through optically induced reconfigurable gratings.