Stimulated Raman scattering and four-wave Raman mixing seeded by a supercontinuum generated in dibromomethane using picosecond and femtosecond laser sources

Stimulated Raman emission from liquid dibromomethane (vibrational Raman shift frequency, 588 cm⁻¹) is introduced into hydrogen gas (rotational Raman shift frequency, 587 cm⁻¹) as a seed beam, in order to generate numerous rotational lines by four-wave Raman mixing. Unexpectedly, a supercontinuum, which is generated by self-phase modulation in dibromomethane, acted as a seed beam to exclusively generate vibrational lines; the rotational lines are generated only when the supercontinuum is minimal. The former is explained by a competition between the high-gain vibrational and low-gain rotational Raman effects when strongly seeded by a supercontinuum. The latter is explained by stimulated Raman gain under the seed effect exclusively to the first-Stokes rotational line.     

Generation of a sub-20-fs single optical pulse by four-wave Raman mixing using two Raman cells filled with molecular hydrogen

To attempt to expand the spectral domain for pulse shortening, we generated several emission lines by stimulated Raman scattering and subsequent four-wave Raman mixing. The efficiency of generation of the Raman emission was improved by passing the beam through two Raman cells that were connected in series. The group-velocity dispersion induced by a Raman cell window and hydrogen was compensated for by means of a pair of chirped mirrors for pulse compression. By a phase lock of the emission lines in the process of four-wave Raman mixing, the pulse width was reduced from 114 to 17 fs in the second Raman cell.     

Generation of multi-color stimulated raman emission from two-color linearly or circularly polarized pump beams

A laser beam at two different frequencies separated by 587 cm^–1 is focused into pressurized hydrogen (rotational transition energy, 587 cm^–1) to generate multi-color stimulated Raman emission. The polarization state and the pulse energy are measured for each generated emission line using linearly and circularly polarized pump beams. The effect of the polarization is discussed by using a parameter characterizing the polarizability of hydrogen and a conservation rule for the angular momentum in four-wave mixing. Many rotational lines are generated with linearly polarized pump beams through a four-wave mixing process. This is in striking contrast to the results obtained by using a single-color circularly polarized pump beam which generates only one rotational line through a conventional stimulated Raman process.     

Multiplication of spectral lines generated by two-color stimulated raman effect

A dye laser emitting at four different frequencies separated by 293.5 (=587/2) cm^-1 is made by inserting an etalon in the resonator cavity of the laser. This laser beam is focused into molecular hydrogen (rotational Raman shift frequency, 587 cm^-1) to generate a multicolor laser beam consisting of more than 10 rotational lines in the vicinity of the fundamental lines by four-wave Raman mixing. Such rotational lines also occur in the vicinity of the vibrational Raman lines. Thus more than 25 emission lines appear simultaneously. This approach is useful to multiply the line density, i.e., the emission lines within a specified wavelength region.     

Rotational Raman scattering dependence on pump polarization

The influence of the ellipticity degree of the pump radiation polarization on threshold energies and energy conversion efficiencies of stimulated rotational Raman scattering (SRRS) are investigated in H₂ with a XeCl excimer laser, by using different focusing geometries. For the first time, it is shown that the dependence of SRRS on pump radiation polarization is also affected by the focusing geometry, i.e. whether low- or high-angle focusing is applied. The experimentally determined threshold energies as a function of the pump radiation polarization are in accordance with theory mainly at high-angle focusing geometries. It is also shown for the first time that gain suppression effects on vibrational Raman scattering have to be considered in understanding the experimental results. Received: 5 January 1999 / Final version: 10 September 1999 / Published online: 8 March 2000     

Polarization of multiple rotational Raman sidebands from hydrogen gas by delayed four-wave Raman mixing in the femtosecond regime

We demonstrate delayed four-wave Raman mixing in hydrogen gas and discuss the polarization of multiple rotational Raman radiation in the sub-100-fs regime. The mechanism of sideband generation through the interaction between a probe pulse and coherence of molecular motions induced by a pump pulse in hydrogen is revealed. One can artificially control the ellipticity of the polarization of the rotational Raman sidebands by changing the pump pulse polarization.     

Low-threshold parametric Raman generation of high-order Raman components in crystals

The theoretical and experimental study of the axial transient multiwave parametric Raman generation via four-wave mixing of arbitrary neighboring Stokes components in simple tungstate crystals is carried out. In agreement of the theoretical modeling with the experimental results, we have found that because of the four-wave mixing of arbitrary Stokes components in the short crystals, the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) generation thresholds of the high-order Stokes components are significantly reduced relative to the values defined by the cascade-like mechanism of SRS.     

Generation of high-order rotational lines by four-wave Raman mixing using a high-power picosecond Ti:Sapphire laser

More than thirty rotational lines equally spaced by 587 cm^–1 are generated simultaneously in the vicinity of the fundamental line by four-wave Raman mixing using a high-power picosecond Ti:Sapphire laser as a pump source and hydrogen as a Raman medium. Since the wavelength of this multifrequency laser emission extends from the near-infrared to the near-ultraviolet, it can be utilized as a tunable light source for picosecond spectroscopy. Because of the wide spectral bandwidth available, this procedure has great potential for the generation of ultrashort laser pulses by mode-locking these emission lines.     

Efficiently generated rotational and vibrational stimulated raman emission by means of a two-color laser beam

When a two-color laser beam is introduced into pressurized hydrogen, about 40 laser emission lines are generated from the ultraviolet to the visible regions. This phenomenon is ascribed to the stimulated Raman effect due to a combination ofJ=1 J=3 rotational andv=0 v=1 vibrational transitions. By introducing the two-color laser beam, the threshold for generation of the rotational line is substantially reduced. The present phenomenon is attributed to four-wave mixing, which allows efficient generation of higher-order rotational and vibrational Raman lines.     

Experimental investigation of combined four-wave mixing and Raman effect in the normal dispersion regime of a photonic crystal fiber

We study the effect of stimulated Raman scattering on four-wave mixing sidebands generated by pumping in the normal dispersion regime of a photonic crystal fiber. Q-switch nanosecond pulses at 1064 nm are used to generate signal and idler wavelengths by degenerate four-wave mixing. These three waves generate their own Raman Stokes orders, leading to a broadband supercontinuum.     

Ultrahigh efficiency laser wavelength conversion in a gas-filled hollow core photonic crystal fiber by pure stimulated rotational Raman scattering in molecular hydrogen

We report on the generation of pure rotational stimulated Raman scattering in a hydrogen gas hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. Using the special properties of this low-loss fiber, the normally dominant vibrational stimulated Raman scattering is suppressed, permitting pure conversion to the rotational Stokes frequency in a single-pass configuration pumped by a microchip laser. We report 92% quantum conversion efficiency (40 nJ pulses in 2.9 m fiber) and threshold energies (3 nJ in 35 m) more than 1 x 10(6) times lower than previously reported. The control of the output spectral components by varying only the pump polarization is also shown. The results point to a new generation of highly engineerable and compact laser sources.     

皮秒激光抽运高压H_2的受激拉曼散射研究

利用Nd :YAG锁模序列脉冲激光 (10 6 4nm)抽运充有高压H2 的拉曼池 ,输出光束经棱镜分光后投射在屏上 ,在可见光及近紫外光区用彩色胶卷摄得 15个受激拉曼散射光斑 ;经 1m光栅摄谱仪摄谱 ,在 36 5— 6 0 5nm波长范围内得到 6 5条受激拉曼谱线 .通过实验结果与理论计算值的比较 ,证明除了H2 的振动拉曼频移量 4 15 4 6cm- 1 外 ,还有多个振动及转动拉曼频移量共同参与作用 ,从而产生了从紫外到红外众多波长的受激拉曼散射光 .     

Generation of multicolor vector Kerr solitons by cross-phase modulation, four-wave mixing, and stimulated Raman scattering

We numerically and experimentally show the existence of multicolor vector spatial solitons in a Kerr planar waveguide through the combined effects of cross-phase modulation, four-wave mixing, and stimulated Raman scattering. Mutual spatial guiding of the Raman-Stokes, anti-Stokes, and pump waves is achieved in the high-conversion regime mainly by cross-phase modulation and phase-matched four-wave mixing induced by a power imbalance between Stokes and anti-Stokes components, leading to the generation of a clear-cut sech-shape three-frequency spatial soliton.     

Influence of parametric four-wave mixing effects on stimulated Raman scattering in bimodal optical fibers

We analyze stimulated Raman scattering in normally dispersive bimodal fibers under single-frequency pumping conditions. Experiments show that whenever the interacting nonlinear waves propagate in the LP(01) and LP(11) modes, a parametric four-wave mixing enters unavoidably into play in the wave-coupling behavior, which causes qualitatively different phenomena compared with the ordinary process of Raman scattering, such as the parametric suppression of the first-order Raman Stokes radiation.     

激光诱导等离子体对水OH伸缩振动受激拉曼散射的影响

利用532 nm脉冲激光进行水的受激拉曼散射研究,通过改变激光焦点与水-空气界面的距离,获得截然不同的OH伸缩振动受激斯托克斯和反斯托克斯谱线.焦点距水-空气界面大于20 mm时,只存在±3400cm-1的斯托克斯和反斯托克斯谱线;焦点距离水-空气界面小于20 mm时,存在±3000和±3400cm-1的斯托克斯和反斯托克斯谱线;继续缩小焦点与水-空气界面的距离,3000 cm-1谱线被增强,而3400 cm-1谱线被削弱.研究结果表明,激光诱导水产生的等离子体增强了局部水分子的氢键,导致OH伸缩振动红移,同时过剩电子增强了水的OH伸缩振动受激拉曼散射.     

Phase locking in four-wave Raman mixing for generation of an ultrashort laser pulse

The emission lines generated by four-wave Raman mixing were coherently phased and provided an approximately 30-fs pulse without any loss of energy simply by passage of the pulse beam through molecular hydrogen.     

Complete experimental characterization of the influence of parametric four-wave mixing on stimulated Raman gain

We present what is to our knowledge the first complete measurement of the dependence of Raman gain on chromatic dispersion, fully revealing the influence of parametric four-wave mixing on stimulated Raman scattering. In particular, a threefold increase of the Raman gain is observed under phase-matching conditions, in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Our experiments, which were performed in a photonic crystal fiber, demonstrate that these unique fibers can be exploited to boost the performances of fiber Raman amplifiers.     

Energy characteristics of photothermal vibrational instability at stimulated Raman and Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering in aerosol droplets

The threshold intensity and the combination frequencies for photothermal vibrational instability in high-Q aqueous aerosol droplets in the two-mode regime have been calculated. The selection rules for coupling electromagnetic and temperature modes in a droplet are obtained. A comparative analysis of the threshold excitation intensities of photothermal vibrational instability, stimulated Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering, and stimulated Raman scattering in droplets is performed. It is shown that photothermal vibrational instability in the two-mode regime can be developed at a pump intensity of about 10⁴ W/cm² for droplets with radii of 2–20 μm for a pump wavelength of 0.532 μm. A method of remote measurement of the microphysical droplet parameters from the additional periodic temperature shift of droplet eigenfrequencies in the spectrum of stimulated Raman scattering and lasing is proposed.     

Nonlinear emission in sodium vapour upon pulsed-laser excitation of the 42 P levels

Parametric four-wave mixing, stimulated electronic Raman scattering and amplified spontaneous emission cascades have been studied experimentally by single-photon resonant and near-resonant excitation of the 4² P levels of dense sodium vapour. The dependence of emission intensities on laser detuning and exciting laser power is discussed.     

苯C—H伸缩振动弱增益模式的受激拉曼散射

对苯的长拉曼振动模式C—H(3060 cm^-1线)伸缩振动的一阶受激拉曼散射进行了实验研究.利用在苯溶液中加入甲苯溶液,在液芯光纤内实现了苯的全对称C—H伸缩振动3060 cm^-1线的受激拉曼散射.利用等离子体解释了这一增强机理. 关键词： 液芯光纤 受激拉曼散射 等离子体