Laser-Pumped Ruby: a Study of Bistability, Instability and Nonlinear Beam Propagation.

Lloyd W. Hillman, Robert W. Boyd, Carlos R. Stroud

A self-consistent description is given for the propagation of a weak optical probe beam through a homogeneously broadened two-level medium in the presence of a strong, collinear, near-resonant pump beam. The propagation of the probe beam is given in terms of bichromatic natural modes, which contain frequency components symmetrically displaced from that of the pump beam. The two frequency components have a definite relative amplitude and phase, which are determined solely by the frequency detunings of the optical fields from the atomic resonance and by the intensity of the pump field. A simple method for calculating these natural modes is derived, and their importance in describing nearly degenerate four-wave mixing, optical bistability, and the stability of homogeneously broadened ring lasers is discussed.

B. Macke, Bernard Ségard, J. Zemmouri

Daniel J. Gauthier, Michelle S. Malcuit, Robert W. Boyd

A. E. Kaplan

In the field of nonlinear optics and quantum electronics, the research progressed basically in these directions: Multiphoton optical resonances of a single cyclotron electron and electrons in semiconductors; CW self-bending of a laser beam in sodium vapor; Atomic shell x-ray radiation by electron beams in solid-state superlattice; Dispersion related multimode instabilities and oscillations in nonlinear counter-propagating waves; Bistable optical solitons; and Nonlinear magneto optics of vacuum.

Theodore H. Maiman

Vyacheslav A. Trofimov

Physical reasons for the development of spatial and temporal instabilities realizing in optical bistability (OB) cavity- free systems are analyzed. It is shown that there are certain types of instability. We describe diffraction instability of light beams due to its propagation through a boundary on a high absorption domain. We consider instability generated by nonlinear dependence of a relaxation time of excited states of atoms (molecules) on vibration temperature or on room temperature under the condition of presence (or absence) of nonlinear absorption. We investigate instability due to an influence of laser- induced electric field and instability caused by the delay in a scheme with additional lateral feedback and instability in a scheme with mirror having a hole at its axis caused by dynamical lenses.