corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 86 » Issue 20
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4512–4515 (2001)

Polarization Instabilities in a Two-Photon Laser

Download: PDF (130 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Olivier Pfister*, William J. Brown†, Michael D. Stenner, and Daniel J. Gauthier‡
Department of Physics and Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0305

Received 24 December 2000; published in the issue dated 14 May 2001

We describe the operating characteristics of a new type of quantum oscillator that is based on a two-photon stimulated emission process. This two-photon laser consists of spin-polarized and laser-driven 39K atoms placed in a high-finesse transverse-mode-degenerate optical resonator and produces a beam with a power of ∼0.2 μW at a wavelength of 770 nm. We observe complex dynamical instabilities of the state of polarization of the two-photon laser, which are made possible by the atomic Zeeman degeneracy. We conjecture that the laser could emit polarization-entangled twin beams if this degeneracy is lifted.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4512
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4512
PACS:
42.50.Gy, 42.50.Dv, 42.65.Sf

*Present address: Department of Physics, University of Virginia, 382 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4714.

†Present address: Corvis Corp., 7015 Albert Einstein Drive, Columbia, MD 21046-9400.

‡Corresponding author.Email address: gauthier@phy.duke.edu

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >