Self-induced ac Stark shift in lasers
- Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Institut Non Lineaire de Nice, and CNRS, UMR 6618 1361 Route des Lucioles, F-06560 Valbonne (France)
The ac Stark effect is a well-known, well-established effect associated with the displacement of the atomic energy levels in the presence of an electromagnetic (e.m.) field. As the origin of the e.m. field is irrelevant, a self-induced ac Stark effect should be present in a laser. However, not only has this effect never been reported but it is not included in any laser model. Here, we show that a self-induced ac Stark shift does exist in the theoretical description of a two-level laser, provided that the reduced equations are derived not from the rotating-wave approximation, but from the full density matrix formulation. Interesting fundamental consequences are discussed and quantitative estimates of the self-induced frequency shift resulting from the laser field's ac Stark shift are obtained for a variety of lasers. We find that the effect is generally small but (at least in some cases) measurable and that the transfer of laser amplitude noise into frequency noise may play a role in future, ultrahigh-precision metrological applications.
- OSTI ID:
- 21544726
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.043840; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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