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Physical Review A

Lasing without inversion based on magnetically assisted gain in coherently prepared cold atoms

J. C. de Aquino Carvalho, A. D. M. de Lima, J. W. R. Tabosa

Published Feb 7, 2022• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on the observation of laser oscillation using the magnetically assisted gain in an ensemble of coherently prepared cold cesium atoms. This gain mechanism was recently demonstrated and is based on the modification of the Zeeman populations and coherences induced by a coupling and a probe beams by the presence of a transverse magnetic field. We have also investigated the enhancement of the gain due to the presence of a resonant ring cavity having different finesses. In the case of a low-finesse cavity operating below threshold, a 14-fold gain enhancement, in comparison with the single-pass gain, was measured and, finally, the system showed laser oscillation when a higher-finesse cavity was used. The present demonstration of laser oscillation constitutes an unconventional kind of lasing without inversion which is based on the manipulation of the dark state by an external magnetic field.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.105.023706

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We report on the observation of laser oscillation using the magnetically assisted gain in an ensemble of coherently prepared cold cesium atoms. This gain mechanism was recently demonstrated and is based on the modification of the Zeeman populations and coherences induced by a coupling and a probe beams by the presence of a transverse magnetic field. We have also investigated the enhancement of the gain due to the presence of a resonant ring cavity having different finesses. In the case of a low-finesse cavity operating below threshold, a 14-fold gain enhancement, in comparison with the single-pass gain, was measured and, finally, the system showed laser oscillation when a higher-finesse cavity was used. The present demonstration of laser oscillation constitutes an unconventional kind of lasing without inversion which is based on the manipulation of the dark state by an external magnetic field.
Abstract We report on the amplification and the storage of a light vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) in an ensemble of cold cesium atoms in the presence of an external transverse magnetic field. This magnetically assisted optical gain was previously reported in a recent publication and originates from the manipulation of the induced dark state by the external magnetic field. Single pass optical gain exceeding 100 % was measured for beams with different topological charges. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the storage and retrieval of the vortex beams, showing that the amplification and the storage processes preserve the coherent nature of the optical vortex. A simple theoretical model based on density matrix numeric calculation and which accounts for the presence of the external magnetic field was developed and present qualitative agreement with the observed results. Owing to the recent proposal of using light carrying OAM for efficient data transmission systems, we believe our results could find application in communications protocols involving distant nodes.
Abstract We report on the measurements of magnetically assisted dispersion and gain in a Zeeman degenerate two-level system associated with the closed D 2 hyperfine transition F g = 3 → F e = 2 cold cesium atoms. We use a Mach–Zehnder interferometer to measure the dispersive properties of this system in the presence of a magnetic field, transversal to the quantization direction, when the atomic system is excited by a coupling and probe beams with orthogonal polarizations. We have measured the spectrum of the refraction index for different magnitudes of the external magnetic field and different coupling beam intensities. A previously published theoretical model, using a simpler atomic transition F g = 1 → F e = 0 , accounts reasonably for the experimentally observed gain and dispersive lineshapes.
Cold atoms coupled to an optical cavity provide an ideal platform for creating lasers without conventional population inversion. Such lasers can generate very high spectral purity, and the output can be precisely controlled by varying the atom-drive or atom-cavity parameters. In this letter, we report experimental observation of gain, amplification, and self-lasing within a continuously operated 85 Rb magneto-optic trap (MOT), in the collective strong coupling regime of the atom-cavity system. The presence of MOT cooling lasers significantly alters the transmission properties of the cavity, and gain is observed in one of the vacuum Rabi peaks. The system makes a transition from an amplifying medium to a self-sustained laser as the MOT parameters are tuned. The underlying lasing mechanism is shown to be Mollow gain in the driven atomic ensemble, and is confirmed through the free-space absorption spectroscopy of the MOT. The free space gain required for the lasing action is significantly smaller in our system as compared to the cases where there is no collective strong coupling.
We demonstrate lasing into counterpropagating modes of a ring cavity using a gas of cold atoms as a gain medium. The laser operates under the usual conditions of magneto-optical trapping with no additional fields. We characterize the threshold behavior of the laser and measure the second-order optical coherence. The laser emission exhibits directional bistability, switching randomly between clockwise and counterclockwise modes, and a tunable nonreciprocity is observed as the atoms are displaced along the cavity axis.
We experimentally study the production of laser gain (phase-insensitive optical amplification) with and without atomic population inversion in a doubly driven three-level system in atomic barium. The external fields are found to create inversionless gain and to enhance gain available in the presence of inversion. Laser oscillation based on enhanced gain is observed. In analysis of the driven system, we identify an irreversible multiphoton process that is intrinsically supportive of gain in the absence of population inversion. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.