Laser Beam Combining Through The Nonlinear Response Of A Strongly Driven Atomic Transition

Kenneth R MacDonald; Mark T Gruneisen; Robert W Boyd

doi:10.1117/12.943845

8 April 1988 Laser Beam Combining Through The Nonlinear Response Of A Strongly Driven Atomic Transition

Kenneth R MacDonald, Mark T Gruneisen, Robert W Boyd

Proceedings Volume 0874, Nonlinear Optical Beam Manipulation, Beam Combining, and Atmospheric Propagation; (1988) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.943845
Event: 1988 Los Angeles Symposium: O-E/LASE '88, 1988, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

We present the results of an experimental and theoretical study of the gain experienced by a weak probe beam propagating through a sodium vapor in the presence of an intense pump field that is nearly resonant with the 3s→3p atomic transition. This interaction provides a means by which the outputs of two lasers can be combined coherently. The probe transmission spectrum is comprised of three distinct features, two of which result in amplification of the probe wave. The origin of these features can be traced to the modification of the atomic level structure by the ac Stark effect. The experimentally measured spectra are in good agreement with the predictions of a theoretical model based on the solution of the density-matrix equations of motion for a two-level atom and including the effects of Doppler broadening. The dependence of the induced gain on the pressure of a helium buffer gas has been measured and is in good agreement with the predictions of theory. The maximum gain observed in these experiments occurs at one of the Rabi sidebands and leads to a 38-fold increase in the intensity of the probe wave.

Citation Download Citation

Kenneth R MacDonald, Mark T Gruneisen, and Robert W Boyd "Laser Beam Combining Through The Nonlinear Response Of A Strongly Driven Atomic Transition", Proc. SPIE 0874, Nonlinear Optical Beam Manipulation, Beam Combining, and Atmospheric Propagation, (8 April 1988); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.943845

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KEYWORDS

Chemical species

Laser beam diagnostics

Absorption

Doppler effect

Sodium

Atmospheric propagation

Helium

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