Abstract
Spatial hole burning of population differences by standing waves is considered in terms of Bragg-like gratings. This philosophy is used to explain increased saturation in two-mirror, single-mode laser operation with stationary active systems, modified mode coupling in the corresponding two-mode operation, an intensity dip that might occur in flowed standing wave lasers, bistable unidirectional ring laser operation, and increased saturation in distributed feedback lasers. The analysis is developed for both stationary media and for those moving with respect to the standing wave. The latter treatment is used to interpret washout of grating contributions in Doppler broadened media, and to determine level decay constants in stationary media. This last application constitutes a stationary system analog to the Doppler medium's Lamb dip spectroscopy and can be called saturation grating spectroscopy. Knowledge of the decay constants is particularly important in laser studies involving coherent mode couplings such as due to saturation grating scattering and population pulsations. It is further shown that the same equations result for probe and saturating waves propagating in the same direction. One then obtains a signal absorption with a heterodyne advantage. Inasmuch as diffusion affects the two methods quite differently, this phenomenon should be easily examined.
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Work supported in part by a U.S. Senior Scientist Award (administered by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung) and in part by the Space and Missile Systems Organization, Los Angeles, California.
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Sargent, M. Laser saturation grating phenomena. Appl. Phys. 9, 127–141 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00903949
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00903949