Extremely short pulses via stark modulation of the atomic transition frequencies

We propose a universal method to produce extremely short pulses of electromagnetic radiation in various spectral ranges. The essence of the method is a resonant interaction of radiation with atoms under the conditions of adiabatic periodic modulation of atomic transition frequencies by a far-off-resonant control laser field via dynamic Stark shift of the atomic levels and proper adjustment of the control field intensity and frequency, as well as the optical depth of the medium. The potential of the method is illustrated by an example in a hydrogenlike atomic system.     

Light drag in moving media with a high frequency dispersion

The influence of spectral interference of various nature on the effects of radiation drag is studied using as examples electromagnetically induced transparency in pure discrete atomic transitions and the transparency windows of autoionization resonances of gaseous media. The analysis is performed using the Maxwell equations and taking into account the equivalence of the corresponding spatial dispersion of a substance and the optical effects caused by uniform motion. The realization conditions of the drag coefficients in the Lorentz and Laub forms are found from the exact dispersion equations obtained. A direct relation between the monochromatic radiation drag coefficient and the decrease in the pulsed radiation group velocity due to high frequency dispersion of the resonant refractive index is found. The known experimental data on ultraslow light pulses indicate the possibility of interference enhancement of the light drag effect by a factor of 10⁶-10⁷.     

Interference enhancement of resonant magneto-optical effects

The influence of spectral interference of different nature on resonant Faraday rotation is studied using as examples the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency in pure discrete atomic transitions and the transparency windows of autoionization resonances of gaseous media. A common numerical criterion for a substantial effect of spectral interference and coherence of atomic transitions on magneto-optical phenomena is established. A direct relationship between the polarization ellipse rotation angle of cw monochromatic light and reduction of the light pulse group velocity resulting from a strong frequency dispersion of the resonant refractive index is found. The known experimental data on ultraslow light pulses indicate the possibility of interference enhancement of the Faraday effect by a factor of 10⁶?10⁷.     

Extremely short dissipative solitons in an active nonlinear medium with quantum dots

A medium consisting of quartz with embedded active (amplifying) or passive (absorbing) impurities, i.e., quantum dots, is proposed for producing extremely short dissipative solitons on the basis of the effect of enhanced self-induced transparency. The calculations show that, in such a medium, the initial standard femtosecond pulses can be transformed into extremely short dissipative solitons with a peak intensity of ～10¹¹ W/sm², with a duration corresponding to the inverse frequency of transitions in impurities, and with the coherent spectral supercontinuum covering almost the entire transmission region of quartz.     

Acoustically induced transparency in optically dense resonance medium

It is shown that mechanical vibration (acoustical oscillation) of a solid medium along the propagation of multifrequency laser radiation enables one to control the resonant absorption. There exists an optimal spectral structure of the incident field dependent on vibration amplitude as well as the number and intensity of the frequency components that provides the full resonant transparency. A mechanism of the transparency is discussed. Transparency of this kind is shown to appear also via adiabatic modulation of the atomic transition frequency by an external microwave field.     

Effect of counterintuitive time delays in nonlinear mixing

The effect of varying the relative arrival time of the two laser pulses employed in doubly resonant four-wave sum mixing, enhanced by induced transparency, is studied with the aim of optimizing the efficiency of vacuum-ultraviolet generation. With atomic hydrogen as the nonlinear medium, pulsed radiation with wavelengths of 243 and 656 nm and durations of 8 and 14 ns, respectively, is mixed to generate 103-nm coherent radiation. It is shown that by delaying the arrival time of the ground-state pump beam (243 nm) by 2.5-3.5 ns relative to the arrival of the upper-state coupling beam (656 nm), it is possible to enhance the generated intensity by a factor of 2 or more.     

Laser-induced retardation of radiation pulses under arbitrary collisional relaxation of low-frequency coherence

The effect of thermal atomic motion in gaseous media on the features of electromagnetically induced transparency is studied. Relatively general and compact analytical expressions are derived for the absorption coefficient and refractive index of a probe wave in the presence of high-power driving radiation that is resonant with respect to the adjacent atomic transition allowing for the relaxation of low-frequency coherence. It is demonstrated that the shape of the spectrum is similar to laser-induced structures in a continuum. This representation of resonances allows the electromagnetically induced transparency to be studied on relatively general assumptions and a significant retardation of radiation pulses and their delays to be demonstrated.     

Effects of soliton dynamics of acoustic pulses in a paramagnetic crystal

Nonlinear dynamics of longitudinal-transverse acoustic pulses in the deformed cubic crystal containing a paramagnetic impurity with effective spin S = 1 is theoretically investigated. Soliton solutions of systems of equations describing the propagation of extremely short and ultrashort pulses at an arbitrary angle to the direction of external deformation parallel to the crystal symmetry axis are obtained. Classification of longitudinal-transverse soliton types and resonant acoustic transparency regimes is given. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 8, pp. 31–36, August, 2007.     

Formation and erasure of population difference gratings in the coherent interaction of a resonant medium with extremely short optical pulses

In the regime of coherent interaction of short optical pulses with a resonant medium, which is implemented with a pulse duration shorter than the relaxation times in the medium, the formation of population gratings can occur without overlapping the pulses therein. In this case, there are new possibilities for controlling optical pulses, which are especially pronounced for extremely short pulses. It is shown that, with the proper choice of the parameters of a sequence of extremely short optical pulses, not only the formation of population gratings, but also their erasure are possible. It is demonstrated that this effect can be used for the creation of an ultrahigh-speed optical deflector.     

Coherent influence of RF field on the gamma-optical properties of a medium upon crossing-anticrossing of nuclear levels

A new approach to the observation of electromagnetic-induced transparency in gamma optics is proposed. For this purpose, the propagation of a resonant gamma photon in a ⁵⁷Fe magnetic medium affected by an external radiofrequency (RF) field is considered. It is demonstrated that, in the case of crossing-anticrossing, a resonant RF field significantly transforms gamma-optical properties of the medium that become dependent on its parameters. This allows coherent control of the group velocity of gamma photons and controlled filtering of unpolarized gamma radiation in the sample to be realized.     

Study of radiofrequency radiation by means of optical effect of electromagnetically induced transparency

We propose a method of all-optical investigation of radiofrequency (RF) radiation based on the coherent effect of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). It is shown that if the atomic coherence is perturbed by an RF field, the shape of probe pulse propagating in a three-level ??-type atomic medium under EIT conditions is modified correspondingly to the temporal structure of the RF pulse. The effect is sensitive to the parameters of the pulse which enables measuring the intensity and the spectrum of the RF pulse. The method can be used for storage and lossless transfer of RF information over long distances using optical pulses.     

Controlling the Radiation Parameters of a Resonant Medium Excited by a Sequence of Ultrashort Superluminal Pulses

We investigate the possibility of controlling the radiation parameters of a spatially periodic one-dimensional medium consisting of classical harmonic oscillators by means of a sequence of ultrashort pulses that propagate through the medium with a superluminal velocity. We show that, in the spectrum of the transient process, in addition to the radiation at a resonant frequency of oscillators, new frequencies arise that depend on the period of the spatial distribution of the oscillator density, the excitation velocity, and the angle of observation. We have examined in detail the case of excitation of the medium by a periodic sequence of ultrashort pulses that travel with a superluminal velocity. We show that it is possible to excite oscillations of complex shapes and to control the radiation parameters of the resonant medium by changing the relationship between the pulse repetition rate, the medium resonant frequency, and the new frequency.     

Polarization effects in resonant nuclear scattering

Polarization phenomena are present in every radiative transition, whether it is of atomic or nuclear origin. Nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation is an ideal technique for their study because (a) the probing radiation is in a well characterized polarization state, in most cases linear, (b) the scattered radiation can be efficiently analyzed with polarization filters, and (c) synchrotron pulses are very short compared to the lifetime of a nuclear resonance, resulting in a clean signal. In the following article we describe experimental and theoretical studies of the 14.4 keV Mössbauer resonance of ⁵⁷Fe and its transitions with linear and circular polarization. After introducing the required instrumentation a formalism to calculate time dependent polarization phenomena is derived. With the help of different scattering geometries we illustrate various aspects, such as polarization mixing and selective excitation of subsets of the resonance. Perhaps the most fascinating example is the Faraday geometry where the E-vector rotates several 360^ο turns during the lifetime of the resonant scattering. A comparison of this phenomenon with the optical Faraday effect is given. New powerful synchrotron radiation sources will enable researchers to exploit polarization phenomena in nuclear resonant scattering to detect subtle changes in physically and chemically relevant systems.

     

Normal modes of a probe field in the pulsed regime of electromagnetically induced transparency in a Λ-scheme of degenerate quantum transitions

The effect of separation of linearly polarized short probe pulses of electromagnetically induced transparency in the field of linearly polarized coupling radiation is modeled numerically. It is shown that the input-probe pulses polarized parallel or perpendicular to the input-probe field propagate in the medium without changing the state of their polarization. If the input-probe radiation is weak compared to the coupling radiation, then the probe field inside the medium is the sum of two independently propagating linearly polarized normal modes, which are excited by the projections of the input-probe pulse onto the direction of polarization of the coupling radiation and onto the perpendicular direction, respectively. The normal modes have the same phase velocities, but different velocities of their real envelopes. This circumstance leads to the rotation of the plane of polarization of the total probe field at short distances and to its separation into two pulses with mutually perpendicular directions of polarization at long distances. At a high intensity of the probe radiation, the input-probe pulse decays into pulses the planes of polarization of which are not mutually perpendicular. Under these conditions, it is impossible to represent the probe radiation as a sum of normal modes. The modeling is performed in the scheme of degenerate quantum transitions between states of levels ³ P ₀, ³ P ₁ ⁰, and ³ P ₂ of isotope ²⁰⁸Pb taking into account the Doppler broadening of spectral lines.     

Resonant generation of few-cycle pulses in hydrogenlike atoms

We show the possibility to produce nearly bandwidth-limited few-cycle pulses based on time-dependent resonant interaction of an incident radiation with the bound states of hydrogenlike atoms. A time-dependence of an atomic resonance is provided by far-off-resonant laser field with intensity much below the atomic ionization threshold via time-dependent tunnel ionization from the excited states and temporal adiabatic Stark splitting of the excited energy levels. Without external synchronization of the spectral components it is possible to produce a train of two-cycle pulses at 121.6 nm with duration 800 as in atomic hydrogen.     

Quantum-interference effects for gamma radiation under crossing-anticrossing conditions for nuclear levels in an RF field

A new approach to observing the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency in gamma optics is proposed. The propagation of a resonant photon in a ⁵⁷Fe magnetic medium in an applied rf field is considered for this purpose. It is shown that, under crossing-anticrossing conditions, a resonant rf field substantially changes the gamma-optical properties of the medium, which become dependent on the parameters of the field. This opens the possibility for exercising a coherent control of the photon group velocity and a controllable filtration of unpolarized gamma radiation in a sample.     

Induced resonant transparency of magnetic materials for gamma radiation: Propagation dynamics

The theory of spatiotemporal dynamics of gamma radiation in a resonant medium upon excitation of two-frequency gamma magnetic resonance in magnetic materials is considered. The radiation absorption at the fundamental frequency and the harmonic generation are investigated under conditions when the frequency of gamma radiation is shifted by the half-sum or half-difference of the frequencies of radio-frequency magnetic fields. It is shown that the propagation of gamma radiation through an absorber is characterized by a steady-state gamma intensity (resonant transparency). A consistent radio-frequency spectral analysis demonstrates that the intensities of harmonics drastically change at the transparency region boundaries due to nonlinear interference. The theory of quantum and dynamical beats of synchrotron radiation under conditions of induced resonant transparency is proposed.     

Collisions of Single-Cycle and Subcycle Attosecond Light Pulses in a Nonlinear Resonant Medium

By numerically solving the system of Maxwell–Bloch equations, we have examined theoretically collisions of extremely short single-cycle and unipolar subcycle pulses in a nonlinear resonant medium under conditions that the light interacts coherently with the medium. The dynamics of the electric field of structures of light-induced polarization and inversion difference has been considered in the situation in which pulses are overlapped in the medium. We show that the states of the medium (to the right and to the left of the overlap region of the pulses) may differ. In particular, we show that polarization waves with different characteristics can exist in the regions of the medium that are located on opposite sides of the overlap region of the pulses. These waves travel in different directions and have different spatial frequencies.     

Propagation dynamics of nonlinear chirped optical laser pulses in a two-level medium

We investigate the propagation dynamics of nonlinear chirped optical laser pulses in a two-level medium. For certain chirp strength and chirp width, an incident 2π nonlinear chirped pulse will split into optical precursors and a stable self-induced transparency soliton. This is caused by the particular Fourier spectrum that includes not only central resonant frequency components but also high-frequency and low-frequency sidebands. Moreover, the effects of chirp parameters on the evolution of nonlinear chirped pulses are also discussed.     

Resonant solitons in semiconductors: Transparency induced by exciton-exciton interactions

Propagation of femtosecond light pulses spectrally centered at the 1s-exciton resonance in a semiconductor is studied analytically and numerically. Soliton-like propagation is demonstrated for pulses with the input area exceeding a certain threshold. This phenomenon is shown to be different from the self-induced transparency in atomic systems and associated with the formation of the resonant solitons due to exciton-exciton interactions.