Analysis of Raman lasing without inversion

Rai, Wang, Izatt

Suranjana Rai, Jagdish Rai, S. Wang +1 more

Zhenfei Luo, Zhizhan Xu

Michael Fleischhauer, Marlan O. Scully

S. G. Pavlov, Nils Dessmann, Britta Redlich +6 more

We report on an optically pumped laser where photons are simultaneously generated by population inversion and by stimulated Raman scattering in the same active medium, namely crystalline silicon doped by bismuth (Si∶Bi).The medium utilizes three electronic levels: ground state [j1i: 1sðA 1 Þ in Si∶Bi], upper [j3i: 2p Æ ] and lower [j2i: 1sðEÞ] laser levels.The j1i ↔ j3i and j2i ↔ j3i transitions are optically allowed and the j1i ↔ j2i transition is Raman active.Lasing based on population inversion occurs between the states j3i and j2i, while Raman scattering benefits from the Raman-active transition.At high pump power the inversion-based stimulated emission j3i → j2i disappears, because electronic scattering from j1i to j2i via a virtual state dominates and the electrons are excited into j2i rather than into j3i.Starting as population inversion-based lasing, it ends as stimulated Raman scattering.Our model shows that such a competition occurs on the timescale of the 10-ps-long pump pulse.

Hadiseh Alaeian, M. S. Shahriar

We show that it is possible to realize simultaneous Raman lasing at two different frequencies using a double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ system pumped by a bifrequency field. The bifrequency Raman lasers are phase-locked to one another and the beat-frequency matches the energy difference between the two metastable ground states. Akin to a conventional Raman laser, the bifrequency Raman lasers are expected to be subluminal. As such, these are expected to be highly stable against perturbations in cavity length and have quantum noise limited linewidths that are far below that of a conventional laser. Because of these properties, the bifrequency Raman lasers may find important applications in precision metrology, including atomic interferometry and magnetometry. The phase-locked Raman laser pair also represent a manifestation of lasing without inversion, albeit in a configuration that produces a pair of nondegenerate lasers simultaneously. This feature may enable lasing without inversion in frequency regimes not accessible using previous techniques of lasing without inversion. To elucidate the behavior of this laser pair, we develop an analytical model that describes the stimulated Raman interaction in a double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ system using an effective two-level transition. The approximation is valid as long as the excited states adiabatically follow the ground states, as verified by numerical simulations. The effective model is used to identify the optimal operating conditions for the bifrequency Raman lasing process. This model may also prove useful in other potential applications of the double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ system, including generation of squeezed light and spatial solitons.