United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Mohinder P Sharma

David A Cardimona

Phillip R Peterson

Athanasios Gavrielides

System and method for selectively inducing transparency to laser radiation in a material are described comprising a material having a ground state and two closely-spaced first and second excited states wherein the transition dipole moment d.sub.1 between the ground and first excited states is parallel to the dipole moment d.sub.2 between the ground and second excited states, and wherein d.sub.1 is substantially equal to zd.sub.2 where z is a scalar constant characteristic of the material, and wherein the frequencies of transition between the ground and first excited states and between the ground and second excited states are .omega..sub.o and .omega..sub.o +.DELTA., respectively, and a source of laser radiation for substantially totally irradiating the material with laser radiation of frequency .omega..sub.L substantially equal to .omega..sub.o +.DELTA./(1+z.sup.2).

Method and apparatus for field-induced transparency using laser radiation

Multibeam coupling in a Kerr medium of nonlinear characteristics and finite response time is disclosed together with two different frequency spectrum examples of its use. In the first spectrum example, the modes are equally spaced and in the second spectrum the frequency separations are all unequal. In either case, as the beams propagate, both input spectra eventually reach a saturation characterized by a cascading of energy into the lowest frequency if the Kerr constant is positive. The direction of cascading of energy transfer is reversed to the highest frequency if the Kerr constant is negative. The examples disclosed include a typical Kerr medium and are representative of a multimode, equally spaced laser source and an unequally spaced source. For the equally spaced case, the optimum medium response time for conversion of Gaussian spectra is disclosed. If the frequencies are unequally spaced general conditions to be satisfied are disclosed, along with examples.

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Mohinder P Sharma