A Experimental Investigation of Superfluorescence in Atomic Calcium

Anantharaman Kumarakrishnan, Xianming L. Han

Quirin H. F. Vrehen, H. M. Gibbs

Anantharaman Kumarakrishnan, James F. Kelly, Xianming L. Han

We have studied Superfluorescence (SF) under highly unfavorable conditions of rapid collisional and radiative distribution in a Doppler broadened medium. Nanosecond SF pulses at 5.5 {mu} were generated from a 50 cm column of calcium vapor buffered with argon by optically pumping the Ca (4s{sup 2} {sup 1}S{sub 0} - 4s4p{sup 1}P{sub 1} - 3d4s{sup 1}D{sub 2}) Raman Amplifier scheme. Power broadening due to an intense 13 nsec pump pulse precludes the evolution of SF for essentially this duration. As a result, the scaling laws which govern the properties of SF in a transversely excited system are shown to apply in our situation in which the conditions resemble swept excitation.

Roman S. Dygdała, Anna M. Zawadzka, Daniel Lisak +2 more

H. M. Gibbs

J. Kelly, Anantharaman Kumarakrishnan, Xianming L. Han

We report studies of SF cascades in atomic calcium which result from two-photon excitation of several levels reasonably close to the ionization limit. We have observed significant conversion efficiencies for some of these transitions which result in subnanosecond pulses particularly in the visible wavelengths. In addition, we report the discovery of a novel two-photon scattering mechanism which could prove to be a good method of determining collisional broadening rates.