Observation of a highly superluminal laser employing optically pumped Raman gain and depletion

Abstract

In this paper, we report a Raman laser which is extremely sensitive to a variation of the cavity length, using a scheme employing two stable isotopes of Rb. One isotope is used for producing a broad gain spectrum via the optically pumped Raman gain process, while the other is used for producing a narrow dip via the optically pumped Raman depletion process. By tuning the frequencies of the two Raman pumps, the center frequencies of the gain and dip can be aligned to the same frequency. This approach allows tuning of the gain and dip parameters independently over a broad range of operating conditions. With such a configuration, we can produce a negative dispersion around the two-photon resonance frequency in the vapor cell, which leads to a group index that is close to zero. By theoretically matching the experimental observations, we can infer that the sensitivity of such laser is enhanced by a factor of more than 2800, which is nearly a factor of three larger than the highest value reported previously using a different approach.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 15, 2022
Source ID
10.1364/oe.451132

Entities

People

  • Devin Hileman
  • M. S. Shahriar
  • Nicholas Condon
  • Zifan Zhou

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Defense Security Cooperation Agency
  • Northwestern University

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Bayesian Inference
  • Directed Energy