Asymmetry of light amplification in optically thick active media

Eugene A. Tikhonov, N M Narovlyanskaya

B. V. Bokut', Anatoly N. Serdyukov

Aleksandr M Leontovich, A. M. Mozharovskiǐ, Evgenii Dmitrievich Trifonov

S. G. Voloshenyuk, L. V. Vovk, E I Zabello +1 more

An asymmetry effect in the amplification and efficiency of an optically dense amplifier is predicted theoretically and confirmed experimentally for opposite and concurrent collinear signal and pump paths. The effect is due to a difference in the losses as a result of the two-stage absorption of pump radiation in a system of luminescing centers described by a model of three energy levels. Calculations are made of various characteristics of this type of amplifier using the quasisteady-state approximation.

Vladimir D Taranukhin, M. Yu. Pogosbekyan

The amplification of intense light pulses in resonance active media with an optical Stark effect and coherence effects is examined theoretically. In the course of the amplification, the pulse may go through a stage of an incoherent Stark quasisoliton. The envelope of this quasisoliton has an approximately constant, highly asymmetric shape. The energy of the quasisoliton is approximately constant. Upon further amplification, the Stark quasisoliton "breaks up" into a train of shorter pulses. Over a sufficiently long amplification distance, a true soliton may form in the active medium. In general, this true soliton is not the same as a standard π pulse in a medium without a Stark effect.

George C. Baldwin