The Concept of Coherence - Its Application to Lasers

陈亚红 Chen Yahong, Yangjian Cai

Castellanos, L. M., Lopez, F. E.

A theoretical description in terms of the coherence propagation is given for self-focussing. The concept of coherence length is defined in terms of free, self-focussing propagation giving results in accordance with well known experimental criteria for the laser. Extension of the method is given for an Atom Laser showing good results in agreement with recents numerical results of Trippenbach et. al.: J. Phys. B:At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 33, 47-54 (2000).

А. Н. Ораевский

Marian O. Scully, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, Hebil Li +1 more

We demonstrate a strong coherent backward wave oscillation using forward propagating fields only. This is achieved by applying laser fields to an ultra-dispersive medium with proper chosen detunings. The physics then has much in common with propagation of ultra-slow light. Applications and experimental progress will be discussed.

Xiao Yan Cheng

Erwin Louis Hahn

Coherent, continuous-wave and pulsed-laser response of optical two-level systems are reviewed in terms of optical Bloch-Maxwell equations. The concept of the macroscopic magnetic moment reaction “radiation damping” field in NMR is extended to account for the threshold condition for maser-laser action in a cavity and for propagating optical, coherent, transient free-induction signals emitted by macroscopic electric dipole moments. Analogues of NMR in coherent optical transients are listed. A brief history is presented of early developments in magnetic resonace, leading to application of the Bloch equations to the semiclassical description of electric dipole two-level systems. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.