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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Measurement of the nonlinear refractive index of Cs D1 line using z-scan

F. C. Dias dos Santos, J. C. de Aquino Carvalho, Guilherme T. Moura, Thierry Passerat de Silans

Published Aug 13, 2019• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present measurements of the nonlinear refraction coefficients for the D1 line of cesium vapor. A variant of the z-scan technique is applied for which we scan the laser frequency across resonance for different sample positions and detect the transmission after an aperture in the far field. From the spectra for different positions we reconstruct the position-dependent transmission z-scan curve for a given laser detuning. This technique allows obtaining the vapor Kerr coefficient over a large and continuous range of frequencies. From the saturation of the Kerr coefficient, n2, with beam power we obtain n4, the next term in the refraction index expansion. A theoretical model is used to calculate n2 and n4 giving values consistent with experimental ones.

DOI
10.1364/josab.36.002468

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Atomic vapors are systems well suited for nonlinear optics studies but very few direct measurements of their nonlinear refractive index have been reported. Here we use the zzz-scan technique to measure the Kerr coefficient, n2{n}_{2}n2​, for a Cs vapor. Our results are analyzed through a four-level model, and we show that coherence between excited levels as well as cross-population effects contribute to the Kerr nonlinearity.
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Atomic vapors make flexible and useful nonlinear optical media when light is detuned far from resonances. However, few direct measurements of their nonlinear coefficients have been performed to date. We present a measurement of the Kerr coefficient for various detunings to both the red and blue of the D2D2D2 line in hot atomic rubidium vapor. Saturation effects complicate the interpretation of the standard z-scan method, but a simple saturation model agrees well with our data. We find values of ${n}_{2}\ensuremath{\approx}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}/\mathrm{W}$ for 1 GHz detunings from the D2D2D2 line.
The electronic nonlinear refractive index in Cs vapor at 1.06 μ is shown to be negative and to consist of two distinct contributions. One of these contributions arises from a two-photon resonance in the susceptibility and can be made comparable in magnitude to the positive n2 in laser glass. The other term arises from population redistributions between the ground and first excited state. We present measurements of self-defocusing of a single pulse from a Nd: YAG mode-locked laser that are in agreement with the theoretical predictions.