Nonstationary parametric amplification of polychromatic radiation propagating in an extended absorbing resonant medium

An experimental and theoretical study of the two-wave interaction (of a probe wave and a pumping wave) of wide-band multimode laser pulses with an optically dense extended resonant medium (metastable neon atoms in a positive glow-discharge column) is presented. Depending on the pumping power and characteristics of the medium, various regimes of interaction between the field and the matter, leading to qualitatively different types of amplification spectra, are realized: a cooperative interaction regime at low pumping powers corresponds to amplification spectra consisting of two peaks, which lie on both sides of the absorption line; in the regime of nonstationary Rabi oscillations (Rabi flopping), the amplification appears in the form of an isolated peak at a frequency close to the resonance in the substance; under certain interaction conditions, a dispersive shape of amplification spectra is observed. A significant gain in the probe field (by several times at a length of 10 cm) is obtained as a result of a nonstationary population inversion upon rotation of the Bloch vector of the resonant medium under the action of a strong pumping field in the course of propagation of the two waves.