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James Glownia

Rodney T Hodgson

Peter P Sorokin

A novel practicable type of gaseous optical gain medium for efficiently generating intense, highly monochromatic, continuous-wave (CW) or pulsed, coherent light beams is disclosed. Gain results from nonlinear optical pumping of a gas of &#x39b;-type 'three-level' atoms, coherently phased ('dressed') via application to the medium of two monochromatic laser beams tuned to the resonance frequencies &#x3c9;and &#x3c9;'. Nonlinear optical pumping of the &#x201c;dressed-atom&#x201d; gas is accomplished through the combined action of two separate physical processes: (1) A low pressure gaseous discharge, occurring continuously within the vessel containing the gain medium, produces intense narrow-band fluorescence at &#x3c9;and &#x3c9;&#x2032;through the process of electron impact excitation (EE). (2) Via a specific form of the nonlinear photonic process of stimulated hyper-Raman scattering (SHRS), photons comprised by the narrow-band fluorescence generated in (1) are efficiently converted to photons comprised by the propagating coherent light beams at &#x3c9;and &#x3c9;&#x2032;, thus effecting amplification of the latter.

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Santa Fe, NM, United States of America

James Glownia