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Physics Today

Self-Induced Transparency Found in Sulfur Hexafluoride

Published Jan 1, 1968• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

By applying a short, intense pulse from a Q-switched carbon dioxide laser to gaseous sulfur hexafluoride, Kumar Patel and Richard Slusher of Bell Telephone Laboratories have made the gas transparent to 10.6-micron radiation (Phys. Rev. Letters 19, 1019, 1967). They have thus verified the self-induced transparency first found with a ruby laser system by Erwin Hahn and Samuel McCall of Berkeley (PHYSICS TODAY, August 1967, page 47). To observe the effect, one must match the exciting frequency to a strongly absorbing transition in the sample.

DOI
10.1063/1.3034688

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By applying a short, intense pulse from a Q-switched carbon dioxide laser to gaseous sulfur hexafluoride, Kumar Patel and Richard Slusher of Bell Telephone Laboratories have made the gas transparent to 10.6-micron radiation (Phys. Rev. Letters 19, 1019, 1967). They have thus verified the self-induced transparency first found with a ruby laser system by Erwin Hahn and Samuel McCall of Berkeley (PHYSICS TODAY, August 1967, page 47). To observe the effect, one must match the exciting frequency to a strongly absorbing transition in the sample.
Although ruby is almost opaque to certain light frequencies, it can be made transparent to one of those frequencies according to Erwin Hahn and Samuel McCall of the University of California, Berkeley. The trick is to apply a sharp pulse of intense, coherent light at a frequency that matches a resonant transition in ruby. If the ruby is cold enough the pulse will be transmitted and the light can be slowed down to as little as 1% of its usual velocity. This self-induced transparency, predicted theoretically a year and a half ago by Hahn and McCall, was recently reported by them (Phys. Rev. Letters 18, 908).
Self-induced transparency has been studied in detail experimentally for a simple two-level atomic absorption. A Hg II laser pulse is used at resonance with the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line of Rb. This system eliminates many previous experimental problems such as nonuniform wave fronts and degenerate off-resonant absorbers. Nonlinear transmission, pulse delays, pulse breakup, peak amplification, incoherent-decay effects, off-resonance effects, and focusing effects have been observed. Quantitative comparison with theory is obtained by computer solutions which include the incoherent decay and optical-pulse shapes of the Hg-Rb system. Good agreement is obtained with the theory of McCall and Hahn. Pulse compression by an order of magnitude is obtained by focusing in the resonant absorber. The theory predicting preferred pulse widths and velocities proposed by Davidovich and Eberly is discussed and found inappropriate for the Hg-Rb and other similar systems.
We have investigated the self-induced transparency effect in ruby over a range of input energies which range from linear absorption to full transparency. The transmission, pulse delay, and pulse broadening were studied as a function of input energy. The transition region is narrower than that found in similar studies of the CO2{\mathrm{O}}_{2}O2​/SF6{\mathrm{F}}_{6}F6​ system; this is consistent with predictions based on ensembles of two-level systems. Included are the first pulse-delay and pulse-broadening curves to be obtained for the ruby system.
A review is given of the current status of the self-induced transparency effect. The McCall–Hahn theory (2π pulses) is considered and its generalization to the case of phase modulation of radiation pulses, degeneracy of transitions, and two-photon resonance is discussed. The relationship with the theory of nonlinear waves, obeying the Korteweg–de Vries equation, is pointed out. The possibility of similar coherent effects in direct interband transitions in semiconductors is discussed. A summary is given of the experimental results demonstrating a strong fall in the absorption and a considerable slowing down of light pulses, typical of the self-induced transparency. Possible physical applications of the effect, based on these properties, are discussed.
Self-induced transparency has been observed on a Q(2)Q(2)Q(2)-degenerate transition for the first time. Coherent interaction occurs as a short pulse from the $^{2}P_{\frac{1}{2}}F=2\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{2}P_{\frac{3}{2}}{F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=2$, magnetic dipole transition of the atomic-iodine laser passes through a self-resonant iodine vapor. High transparency and considerable pulse delay at input pulse areas $\ensuremath{\theta}>\ensuremath{\pi}$, and small-pulse splitting at $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{\pi}$ characterized the phenomena.