Laser beam combining in potassium vapor

Energy transfer between two laser beams of comparable intensity due to their nonlinear interactions in an atomic vapor was investigated. Strong coupling occurs due to stimulated Rayleigh scattering when the frequencies of the two waves differ by the inverse of the excited-state lifetime. The energy transfer between two nearly equal energy pulses from an alexandrite laser tuned near the 4/sup 2/S/sub 1/2/ to 4/sup 2/P/sub 3/2/ transition of potassium vapor was measured. It was found that as much as 85% of the total incident energy was contained in one of the output beams. >

[1]  R. Boyd,et al.  Observation of a spectral hole due to population oscillations in a homogeneously broadened optical absorption line , 1983 .

[2]  Frederick Y. Wu,et al.  Observation of amplification in a strongly driven two-level atomic system at optical frequencies , 1977 .

[3]  M. Sargent.  Spectroscopic techniques based on Lamb's laser theory , 1978 .

[4]  C. cohen-tannoudji,et al.  Modification of resonance Raman scattering in very intense laser fields , 1977 .

[5]  B. R. Mollow.  Stimulated Emission and Absorption near Resonance for Driven Systems , 1972 .

[6]  S. Schwarz,et al.  WAVE INTERACTIONS IN SATURABLE ABSORBERS , 1967 .

[7]  R. Boyd,et al.  Induced gain and modified absorption of a weak probe beam in a strongly driven sodium vapor , 1988 .

[8]  J. H. Lee,et al.  Picosecond relaxation measurements by polarization spectroscopy in condensed phases , 1978 .

[9]  R. Gush,et al.  Scattering of Intense Light by a Two-Level System , 1972 .

[10]  K. Koch,et al.  Observation of resonances at subharmonics of the Rabi frequency in the saturated absorption of a 100% amplitude-modulated laser beam , 1988 .

[11]  R. Morris,et al.  Tunable CW alexandrite laser , 1980 .

[12]  G. Agarwal,et al.  Multiphoton processes in two-level atoms in two intense pump beams , 1984 .

[13]  N. Tsukada,et al.  Modulation of optical bistability by an additional laser beam , 1982 .

[14]  J. H. Lee,et al.  Coherent population oscillations and hole burning observed in Sm+2:CaF2 using polarization spectroscopy. , 1980, Optics letters.

[15]  C. cohen-tannoudji,et al.  Dressed-atom description of resonance fluorescence and absorption spectra of a multi-level atom in an intense laser beam , 1977 .

[16]  A. Szöke,et al.  Time and spectral resolution in resonance scattering and resonance fluorescence , 1977 .

[17]  R. Boyd,et al.  Saturation and inverse-saturation absorption line shapes in alexandrite , 1984 .

[18]  M. Soskin,et al.  Dynamic self-diffraction of coherent light beams , 1979 .

[19]  R. Boyd,et al.  Four-wave parametric interactions in a strongly driven two-level system , 1981 .

[20]  K. Koch,et al.  Dynamics of homogeneously broadened lasers: higher-order bichromatic states of operation , 1985 .

[21]  N. Tsukada.  Saturation Effects of a Two-Level System in Two RF Fields , 1979 .

[22]  C. cohen-tannoudji,et al.  Simultaneous saturation of two atomic transitions sharing a common level , 1977 .

[23]  Donald F. Heller,et al.  Tunable alexandrite lasers: Development and performance , 1985 .