Action of counter-propagating laser beams on two-photon excitation of potassium vapour

T Efthimiopoulos (1) , N Merlemis (1, 2) , M E Movsessian (3) , D Pentaris (1) , M Katharakis (1)

1 Non linear and Quantum Optics Labs
2 Department of Physics, Chemistry & Materials Technology
3 IPR - Institute for Physical Research

We investigate the emissions of atomic potassium excited by two photons near the 4S1/2-6S1/2 transition. Radiation near the 6S1/2-4P3/2, 1/2 and 4P3/2, 1/2-4S1/2 transitions are studied for the unidirectional and the bidirectional cases respectively. It is shown that the total output intensity increases considerably for the bidirectional propagation. This is attributed to the effective increase of the Doppler free excitation and the cancellation of the quantum interference effect that is associated with the multiple paths of excitation of certain states. Keywords. Counter-propagating beams, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), stimulated hyper Raman scattering (SHRS), parametric four-wave mixing (PFWM).

Mots clés: : 32.80.Wr; 42.62.Fi; 42.65.Re; 52.35.Mw

T Efthimiopoulos, N Merlemis, M E Movsessian, D Pentaris, M Katharakis. Action of counter-propagating laser beams on two-photon excitation of potassium vapour. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2010, 43 (5), pp.55401. ⟨10.1088/0953-4075/43/5/055401⟩. ⟨hal-00569871⟩