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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Driven two-level atoms as gain media for two or more photon amplification

Y. Zhu, S. Morin, Qilin Wu, A. Lezama, THOMAS W. MOSSBERG, Maciej Lewenstein

Published Jan 1, 1989• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is well known that driven two-level atoms can exhibit optical amplification.1 This fact has led to the recent demonstration of single-photon lasing in cell and atomic-beam type ensembles of two-level atoms.2 We show that the same simple two-level system can also be utilized as a two- or more-photon amplifying medium. The underlying physics can be understood in terms of the atom field dressed-state picture. When driven by a field detuned from the atomic resonance, significant population inversion between the dressed-state doublets can be created. In the dressed picture, single-photon lasing occurs between inverted sublevels of adjacent dressed-state doublets. Transitions between nonadjacent doublets are still inverted, but require two or more photons. In the degenerate case, the multiphoton emission frequencies differ from the single-photon emission frequency and can hence be selectively enhanced using an optical cavity. Due to the peculiar structure of dressed levels, the multiphoton emissions are all connected through near resonant intermediate states. The multiphoton emissions can also be viewed as a stimulated hyper-Raman scattering of successively higher order.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1989.wr2

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It is well known that driven two-level atoms can exhibit optical amplification.1 This fact has led to the recent demonstration of single-photon lasing in cell and atomic-beam type ensembles of two-level atoms.2 We show that the same simple two-level system can also be utilized as a two- or more-photon amplifying medium. The underlying physics can be understood in terms of the atom field dressed-state picture. When driven by a field detuned from the atomic resonance, significant population inversion between the dressed-state doublets can be created. In the dressed picture, single-photon lasing occurs between inverted sublevels of adjacent dressed-state doublets. Transitions between nonadjacent doublets are still inverted, but require two or more photons. In the degenerate case, the multiphoton emission frequencies differ from the single-photon emission frequency and can hence be selectively enhanced using an optical cavity. Due to the peculiar structure of dressed levels, the multiphoton emissions are all connected through near resonant intermediate states. The multiphoton emissions can also be viewed as a stimulated hyper-Raman scattering of successively higher order.
Driven two-level atoms are shown to exhibit strong, resonantly enhanced, two-photon gain. This gain, unlike that observed in nonlinear mixing processes, is not constrained by a phase-matching condition involving the pump beam. Physically, the gain can be associated with inverted two-photon transitions between dressed states or multiphoton stimulated Raman scattering, and it may be useful in the realization of a two-photon laser. Comparison with the well-known single-photon gain found in the same system is made.
The radiative emission of strongly driven, two-level-like barium atoms into the modes of a confocal optical cavity is studied as a function of barium density. As the barium density is increased, the spatial profile, intensity, and spectrum of light emitted out the ends of the confocal cavity display dramatic changes indicative of a transition from fluorescence to lasing. In this novel two-level system, laser action can be explained in terms of an inversion between the dressed atom-field states or in terms of a type of stimulated hyper-Raman scattering in which atoms lase from the ground to the excited atomic state. A simple dressed-atom rate-equation analysis of this two-level-atom laser is presented. It is pointed out that this same system may provide a means of realizing two-photon-like laser action.
We present a detailed theory of dressed-state lasers, i.e., the lasers that operate due to the gain on an inverted transition between dressed states of a coupled atom-field system. We derive effective Hamiltonians that describe such lasers for the case of one- and two-photon resonances. We argue that, due to the presence of nearly resonant intermediate states, the use of gain media consisting of strongly driven two-level atoms provides an unorthodox yet promising means for achieving cw optical two-photon laser oscillation. We disscuss the stability properties of radiation generated by such media.
We have considered the induced processes that occur in a driven two-level atom, where a laser photon is absorbed and emitted by the ground and by the excited states of the atom, respectively. In the low-intensity limit of the laser field, the induced spectra arising when a laser photon is absorbed by the ground state of the atom consist of two peaks describing induced-absorption and stimulated-emission processes, respectively, where the former prevails over the latter. Asymmetry of the spectral lines occurs at off-resonance and its extent depends on the detuning of the laser field. The physical, process where a laser photon is emitted by the excited state is the reverse of that arising from the absorption of a laser photon by the ground state of the atom. The former differs from the latter in that the emission of a laser photon by the excited state occurs in the low-frequency regime and that the stimulated-emission process prevails over that of the induced absorption. In this case, amplification of ultrashort pulses is likely to occur without the need of population inversion between the optical transitions. The computed spectra are graphically presented and discussed.
We study the operational properties of the lasing field generated from strongly driven two-level atoms in a ring cavity by including the field saturation to all orders. Lasing without inversion between bare atomic states can occur for both off-resonant-- and resonant-pump fields. In the case of an off-resonant--pump field, lasing occurs at one of the Rabi sidebands, for which there exists population inversion between the relevant dressed-atom--field states. In the case of a resonant-pump field, lasing can occur near either of two Rabi sidebands, for which there is no population inversion between the dressed states; here the gain is due to the atomic coherence between the dressed states. While the operation of the off-resonantly--pumped dressed-state laser is similar to that of an ordinary laser, the operation of the resonantly pumped dressed-state laser exhibits some interesting features, such as (1) mode pushing and (2) larger laser intensity coming from smaller linear gain as the detuning is changed. In order to show such features, the calculations have to go beyond the secular approximation.